Pro's and Con's of Bootcamp

Question

Pro's and Con's of Bootcamp

Hi all,

I am currently an Engineering undergraduate student and a good deal of programs I use for school are Windows based only. Being an Engineering student and a tech junkie, I tend to take great care of my products. When I received my MacBook Pro (late 2011) I decided to hold onto my PC running Windows 7 (mid 2009 - still runs fine) for school work and when I needed to use a Windows only based program. When I was first introduced to my new MBP I kept hearing all this talk about running parallels or bootcamp to have Windows on my MBP, as well as OS X.

From what I understand, parallels run Windows at the same time as OS X, which can result in some performance issues. So I just shyed away from that option and kept running two notebooks, my Windows based PC for school work and my MBP for whenever I didn't need my Windows based PC. Now that it is summer time and I have a bit more time to myself, I have been doing some basic research on bootcamp, which may eventually turn into me leaning towards trying out bootcamp.

What are some of the pro's and con's of bootcamp? From what I have read, because it runs either Windows or OS X (not at the same time), it doesn't slow up your system and allows either Windows or OS X to utilize the full power of your hardware - is this true? As I am still relatively new to the whole idea of bootcamp, correct me if I am wrong, but it appears that there are very few, if any, con's to running bootcamp on your Apple notebook (other than the price of purchasing a Windows license and possible anti-virus protection if you so desire). I tend to be a bit strict on my memory usage on my PC's (probably why both my Windows PC and MBP are in top notch shape and I have been able to keep a solid Windows PC since 2009 running well), running bootcamp wouldn't take a huge chunk out any of my memory would it? I have a 13" MBP with 8gb memory, 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7, and ~650gb free on a ~750gb hard drive.

Any information would be greatly appreciated as I am eager to learn more about using bootcamp, as it may make things easier on me!

Thank you!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 11, 2012 11:54 AM

Reply

Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

61,001 points

Jul 11, 2012 12:23 PM in response to anaheim_ducks09

Take a chunk? None, not memory, how could it. Just hdd space.

Runs hotter, poor to no fan controlis an issue, shorter battery.

MW article only looked at vm vs others, superficial treatment.

In general, Windows is less than 100% but very close, and some run dedicated as linux or Windows only.

Reply

Answer 2

Jul 11, 2012 2:49 PM in response to dominic23

Thank you for the article! I read through it - it seems that the article is more so a "how to" install it guide for installing a Windows 8 preview on your MB. I was more so asking for some pro's and con's of using boot camp with Windows, e.g. slows down your notebook. Thank you though!

Reply

Answer 3

Jul 11, 2012 2:56 PM in response to anaheim_ducks09

In my opinion... just my opinion here are cons to boot camp.

You must partition a portion of your hard drive just for boot camp/windows. This may be difficult resizing down the line. It is designed to be "resizeable" but "stuff happens".

You must pick either windows or mac OS, you cannot do both at the same time.

The one Pro I see about boot camp is doesnt "virtualize" windows, it truely lets you take advantage of all your hardware providing a potentially much smoother experience.

However, Parallels has come a long, plus newer macs are becoming powerhouses and 13'' core i7 MBP handles parallels like a champ.

Good luck choosing!

Reply

Answer 4

The hatter

Level 9

61,001 points

Jul 11, 2012 3:31 PM in response to anaheim_ducks09

This:

running bootcamp wouldn't take a huge chunk out any of my memory would it?

Memory = RAM and full access to all the memory. And your disk drive has more than enough.

The downside to Boot Camp is it uses the inner disk tracks which are much slower than outer, by half sometimes, though most don't seem to notice.

Sometimes people reported that OS X did run slower and there never was a given or clue as to why. Didn't make sense.

Disk space or storage is just that and is assumed that you would have to leave OS with enough to grow and function, 30% free. Somewhat the same for Windows, it needs about 60GB to be on safe side for updates and whatever you do.

You though did not say what confused you. Shorter battery? runs warmer? heat has always been true going back 5 yrs of the whole Boot Camp experience. There use to be a little program to help but does not work with Windows 7 and later on Macs since late 2010.

Microsoft Security Essentials is free and more than adequate, and Windows 8 is/will be more secure, from the ground up. Windows 8 you want to enable Hyper-V too seems to help stability.

Reply

Answer 5

Jul 13, 2012 6:40 AM in response to uselessSABOTAGE

Interesting, I have read in some places that parallels have been known to slow down a notebook because it is running both OS's at the same time.

I personally like the fact that boot camp does not "virtualize" Windows when running it. It almost gives me a certain sigh of relief making me less worrysome about the performance of Windows on a MB.

Reply

Answer 6

Jul 13, 2012 6:52 AM in response to The hatter

"Sometimes people reported that OS X did run slower and there never was a given or clue as to why. Didn't make sense." That is really interesting to me, do you think it could be due to using the inner disk tracks? Any idea if this has occurred with recent MB models or older ones?

"Disk space or storage is just that and is assumed that you would have to leave OS with enough to grow and function, 30% free. Somewhat the same for Windows, it needs about 60GB to be on safe side for updates and whatever you do." HDD space is something I don't think I need to worry about in my opinion, hence a majority of my disk space is currently occupied by music (~35gb, roughly ~45% of my current usage), and as mentioned I'm a real neat freak when it comes to maintaining a clean PC.

"You though did not say what confused you. Shorter battery? runs warmer? heat has always been true going back 5 yrs of the whole Boot Camp experience. There use to be a little program to help but does not work with Windows 7 and later on Macs since late 2010." Can battery life be affected when running Boot Camp? I have read about the program that helped with the fans on MB's when running Boot Camp, but was not aware it does not work with newer models. I'm currently just curious to receive some user feedback/community feedback as to what some pro's and con's are. I always like to get opinions prior to making purchases on software and other related products, never hurts. Have you ever ran Boot Camp yourself?

I think what I will do is continue my plan of action until something causes me to change my ways, e.g. my Windows based PC craps out on me. It's worked for me since I got my MBP so I my as well continue, although it's a bit of a hassle. I'm just eager to do some research and learn about my options, that's all!

Reply

Answer 7

dominic23

Level 10

83,952 points

Jul 11, 2012 12:02 PM in response to anaheim_ducks09

This article from Macworld may be of interest to you.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1167170/running_windows_8_on_your_mac.html

Best.

Reply

Answer 8

Jul 11, 2012 2:50 PM in response to The hatter

Are you talking about the Windows 8 preview, or just running Windows via boot camp in general? I'm a little confused as to what you meant in your post.

Reply

Answer 9

Csound1

Level 9

60,033 points

Jul 13, 2012 5:43 PM in response to anaheim_ducks09

anaheim_ducks09 wrote:

Interesting, I have read in some places that parallels have been known to slow down a notebook because it is running both OS's at the same time.

That is correct.

Reply