RAM for running Parallels

Hi,

I'm due to install Parallels 7 on my iMac 2011 (OSX Lion) to run Windows 7. I will only be using a simple accounting software programme on Windows and wandered if the current 4GB of RAM will cater for it easily.

I've read recommendations for upgrading to 8GB if the virtual environment is used a lot, but seeing as I'm running a simple programme I hoped I could get away with it.

Anyone got any experience/knowledge of this? Appreciate your help

A

Furthermore...if I was to upgrade the RAM, can anyone tell me how to allocate part of it to the Parallels software?

I strongly recommend upgrading your iMac to 8 GB. It's an easy and inexpensive upgrade. The upgrade will be beneficial in both Lion and Windows 7.

As far as allocating memory to the Windows 7 VM, that's done during the Windows 7 virtual machine setup in Parallels. That will be one of the setup options. Also, I recommend installing the 64 bit version of Windows 7 not the 32 bit version. Windows 7 32 bit will only handle 3.6 GB of memory whereas the 64 bit version is able to utilize all your allocated memory.

4GB will probably do but I agree with chscag - if you can, upgrade to 8GB. Doing so will save you any headaches down the road. To give you a personal experience, I run Server 2008 R2 (think of this as the server version of Windows 7) here in a VM and gave it 2GB. It runs well enough but it would be nice to have some more memory available.

Granted, I run it in VBox and have a much older machine than yours so the circumstances are different. Regardless, if you can, bump up the RAM in your machine.

Thank you very much both, really helpful. I'm definitely going to upgrade - what's your view on upgrading with 2 x 4GB to give a total of 12GB RAM? I've read differing comments about mixing RAM sizes (i.e 2x2GB and 2x4GB)

acp657 said:

Thank you very much both, really helpful. I'm definitely going to upgrade - what's your view on upgrading with 2 x 4GB to give a total of 12GB RAM? I've read differing comments about mixing RAM sizes (i.e 2x2GB and 2x4GB)

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That will work. Some pundits have stated that the larger modules should be installed in Bank0 but to be honest, it really doesn't matter. You and I can not differentiate between 10 micro-seconds anyway....