2011 MacBook Pro with Parallels 6/Windows 7/Office 2010 Best Bets

This should answer all your questions about installing windows 7 in boot camp.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/bootcampinstall-setup.pdf

About the buy and download in safari... No... you need a retail DVD of windows 7 to install. Once windows is installed you can access it through parallels and install windows software that is on your mac partition.

Hi W,
I have the 2011 13" MacBook Pro and use VMWare Fusion for my virtual machine. I also have Windows 7 Home Premium, but use the 64 bit version, and Office 2007 installed. So far, I have had no problems. Comparing both VMWare and Parallels I found that VM suited my needs better.

Also, VMWare allows for sharing documents between Windows/Mac OSX system - not sure about Parallels. The 8gig of ram will definitely be a plus, but it works fine with the 4gig for now... just waiting for the new 8gig to come in. I see that even with the VM, I still have 2.7gig free when not using VM. Can't comment on the SSD, however, as I've ordered the Seagate Momentus 2.5 SATA w/16mg cache 750g 7200 rpm kit from OWC, they have excellent lifetime warranty on their ram and 3 year on the HHD.

Good luck with your purchase and I think you will enjoy it immensely!

I have a 15" 2011 i7 Quad and I run Parallels 6 with Windows 7 32bit, and Virtual Box running Windows XP and Ubuntu 10.10. I had all that on a MacMini with C2D. It runs noticeably better on the MBP the quad cores help allot. But if your not to worried about speed. then the duals will work. I mean it will be fast with the Dual Core but if you run the VM and do allot of other things at the same time you will notice a decrease in speed. But the RAM is important. 8GB diffidently.. but you can save some dough by buying it stock with 4GB and getting the kit from OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/1333DDR3S08S/

Oh and BTW with Parallels 6 you can use the boot camp partition as a VM also. So you can install Windows 7 as a boot camp OS and still run it in Parallels. Then you can test to see which way works best for you.

Summer66 wrote:
Hi W,
I have the 2011 13" MacBook Pro and use VMWare Fusion for my virtual machine. I also have Windows 7 Home Premium, but use the 64 bit version, and Office 2007 installed. So far, I have had no problems. Comparing both VMWare and Parallels I found that VM suited my needs better.

Also, VMWare allows for sharing documents between Windows/Mac OSX system - not sure about Parallels. The 8gig of ram will definitely be a plus, but it works fine with the 4gig for now... just waiting for the new 8gig to come in. I see that even with the VM, I still have 2.7gig free when not using VM. Can't comment on the SSD, however, as I've ordered the Seagate Momentus 2.5 SATA w/16mg cache 750g 7200 rpm kit from OWC, they have excellent lifetime warranty on their ram and 3 year on the HHD.

Good luck with your purchase and I think you will enjoy it immensely!

I run Parallels and I can confirm it does allow sharing of documents etc. I can't comment on the SSD either.. but you could possible save some money with the SSD on OWC also...

rkaufmann87 wrote:
Why waste money and resources on getting Parallels for MS Office. It's a much more simple solution to get MS Office for Mac.

Roger

I would agree with this also if Office is the only reason you want to install Parallels and Windows.

Office 2011 for Mac is much closer to the PC version than in the past. However, if you're talking about getting certified, you should be using the version you are getting certified on (Office 2010 for Windows).

Windows 7 will run fine as a virtual machine on the dual core i7 as it has 4 virtual cores. Office is not a particularly taxing application with respect to resources.

An SSD gives a nice boost in performance. 128GB is on the smallish side. But, if you just plan on using the machine for development and don't plan on installing lots of applications or music/video files, you can get by (you can always upgrade to a larger drive later if you need to).

If you're planning on going with a virtualization option, then it really doesn't matter if you install the 32 or 64 bit version unless you want to allocate more than 3.25GB to your virtual machine (which really isn't necessary for what you're doing). I generally install the 64 bit version as there really isn't any downside. If you plan on using BootCamp, then you should definitely go 64 bit in order to utilize all of your installed RAM.

I am in the same boat, could a 13" dual core 2011 MBP handle the load of VM Fusion or should I just suck it up and spent the extra dough for a 15"-er? 8 gb for sure

Easily the 13" would hardly know it's even there especially if you upgraded to 8GB of RAM.

Will16 wrote:
I have to get certified in Office 2010 for work, and will be preparing/studying for that primarily on this machine. Office 2008 for the Mac is so different from Office 2007 (in terms of the GUI in the apps themselves), it's just about apples to oranges. If you know that to be different with Office 2011 for the Mac and Office 2010 (i.e. the GUI is more of an exact match), please let me know. Thanks.

I am a certified Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor. So I can say you are 100% correct in wanting to use the version you will be certifying on. They look the same but there is enough differences that might mess you up.

Will16 wrote:
This sounds like an excellent option and I'd like research it further. Is there a good overview article or other resource you're aware of? Basically, Windows 7 can be installed in the Boot Camp partition, but tapped into from either Parallels (or whatever one's VM may be) to enable Office to be run in the VM or Boot Camp. The advantage being you'll have only used up one install of Windows 7? Not that there'd be any need, but could you install Windows 7 once as above, but Office in both the VM and in Boot Camp, and the two respective installs of office look to the same install of Windows 7?

Right you install Windows 7 and Office in Boot Camp.. then create a VM and tell it to use the Boot camp partition as the hard drive and it will use the installation that is already there. You won't have to install anything again... and you can use it either way... with boot camp or your VM of choice. Here is an explanation from Parallels and a nice article with an older version but still relative.

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/usewinxp_boot_camp_partition_inparallels.html

http://www.parallels.com/landingpage/dskd63-12/?source=g_us&gclid=CNG5yLGzzqcCFa Zl7AodB1MbDw

I have no idea, I've been running Fusion on my dual core iMac for 3+ years on my iMac and it runs great. It's quick! I suspect the people that have been complaining are either gaming which taxes any computer heavily or they did not follow the instructions for their VM.

BTW rather than thread jacking this thread (very rude!!!! ) please begin your own thread.

jsa725 wrote:
rkaufmann87-

why then do people insist on 4 cores esp if running vm's?

It all depends on how much you plan on doing with the VM and what you will be doing on the Host machine while using the VM. The RAM IMHO is more important to keep things running smoothly. The extra cores will help with speed if your running allot of programs at once.

You already have such great advise given, but yet again I feel the need to give my 2 pennies...

My suggestion is to try VB (Virtual Box) by Sun. It's absolutely free and works just as good as Parallels, in my opinion of course.

It's relatively simple to set up and if you need help just post back here and we'll give you a hand.

The only real difference between Parallels and VB is that with Parallels you can simply drag and drop files between OS desktops. With VB you'll need to set up a shared folder as a transfer area between OS's. Extremely simple, for FREE.

By using VB or Parallels instead of "Boot Camp" you'll be able to use either OS without the need to reboot you Mac, an absolute must for me.

I would give it a try and if you do not like it then just use Boot Camp.

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Agreed, when it comes to a certification only use the version in which the Cert is targeted for. Although, as an Instructor myself I'd suggest, if the pocket book allows, to also get familiar with Office for Mac (after you get Certified) so that you can be a proficient Certified Office user on either platform.