Which Macbook is best suited for VMWare Labs?

Question

Level 1

2 points

Which Macbook is best suited for VMWare Labs?

Hi,

I want to buy a Mac Notebook. I am confused which one to choose among Macbook Air, Pro 13 or Pro 15.

My aim is to buy a machine on which i can comfortably run 5-7 virtual machines in VMware. Many times machines can go to 10-12. So the macbook should be able to do it. I doubt Macbook Air will be able to do it...?

I am going for 15-inch Pro model without graphics crad. It has 16GB RAM & i7 which can easily suffice my requirement. But its size is too big and bit heavy. Also 13-inch Pro has more battery backup.

My questions are:

1. Is there a chance Macbook Air will support my requirement?

2. If i increase RAM size of 13-inch to 16GB, will the 13-inch suffice my requirements as it only has a dual core i5 processor compared to i7 Quad core in 15-inch?

3. I am also confused about the clock speeds of i5 & i7. Clock speeds of i5 is higher than i7 but i5 has only 2 cores while i7 has 4 cores. What significance it have in regard to my requirement? Please advise.

Thenaks & Regards,

Vi nay

Posted on Sep 4, 2015 5:21 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 4, 2015 8:21 AM in response to vi nay

You need as much ram and processing power as possible to run that many VMs. VMs share system resources with OSX so you will be allocating system resources between each VM and OSX.

With respect to screen size, I prefer more real estate to handle multiple windows so I would choose the 15" display. But without knowing what your display requirements are it is impossible to advise you other than to tell you to go to the store and compare 13" with 15".

The 15" is not that mush larger and is easily portable.

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Answer 2

vi nay Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 5, 2015 4:51 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

Hi Bob,

Thanks for replying.

So Macbook Air is out of the way now. My display requirement is that it should get connected to my one LED TV. This is my max display requirement. Is there anything more towards display to which attention should be paid?

As i am not much involved in graphics, so i think i should escape the 15" with graphics card. 15" without graphics model is looking fine.

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Answer 3

vi nay Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 9, 2015 7:55 PM in response to vi nay

Hi,

If i got for Macbook 13" with i7(Dual-Core), 16GB RAM and 512 SSD, then would this suffice my requirement? Thsi is the highest configuration available for 13" Macbook Pro.

I know it has a dual-core i7 versus quad-core i7 in 15" Pro model but i am assuming it will do my work but a bit slowly? Please suggest.

Regards,

Vinay

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Answer 4

vi nay Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 9, 2015 7:59 PM in response to vi nay

Hi,

If i got for Macbook 13" with i7(Dual-Core), 16GB RAM and 512 SSD, then would this suffice my requirement? Thsi is the highest configuration available for 13" Macbook Pro.

I know it has a dual-core i7 versus quad-core i7 in 15" Pro model but i am assuming it will do my work but a bit slowly? Please suggest.

Regards,

Vinay

Reply