Virtualization on a mini -- worth the hassle?

Big Dan · Big Dan #1 (**permalink**)

02-03-2009, 10:47 PM

Hi All,

I'm considering running XP inside of a virtual machine on a 1.83Ghz mini with 2 GB of RAM. I've already pretty much decided on Fusion as I've used VMWare on both Linux and Windows with great results although I'll trial both Parallels and Virtual Box.

I expect to allocate 1GB of RAM to XP and run some small apps nothing major probably just Yahoo Messenger unless Mac's YIM allows you to play games within YIM. I expect the mini to slow down a bit but is it going to slow to a crawl just running XP and save Firefox in OSX?

Thanks,
Dan

shfle · shfle #2 (**permalink**)

02-04-2009, 04:31 AM

It will run fine. As a rough calculation I should imagine that, with the slight performance hit through the virtualisation, the performance would be roughly comparable to running XP on a 1.5ghz Pc with 1GB RAM.

OSX performance will obviously be affected, especially if you are using Leopard, but only whilst you have Fusion running, as it will then only have 1GB RAM available to it but will revert to the full 2GB once you close Fusion.

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Virtualization on a mini -- worth the hassle?

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Big Dan #1 (permalink)
Member Since: Feb 01, 2009 Location: New York Posts: 95 Mac Specs: Mini 1.83Ghz Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, running 10.6.1	02-03-2009, 10:47 PM Hi All, I'm considering running XP inside of a virtual machine on a 1.83Ghz mini with 2 GB of RAM. I've already pretty much decided on Fusion as I've used VMWare on both Linux and Windows with great results although I'll trial both Parallels and Virtual Box. I expect to allocate 1GB of RAM to XP and run some small apps nothing major probably just Yahoo Messenger unless Mac's YIM allows you to play games within YIM. I expect the mini to slow down a bit but is it going to slow to a crawl just running XP and save Firefox in OSX? Thanks, Dan
	QUOTE Thanks

shfle #2 (permalink)
Member Since: Nov 23, 2007 Location: Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, UK Posts: 305	02-04-2009, 04:31 AM It will run fine. As a rough calculation I should imagine that, with the slight performance hit through the virtualisation, the performance would be roughly comparable to running XP on a 1.5ghz Pc with 1GB RAM. OSX performance will obviously be affected, especially if you are using Leopard, but only whilst you have Fusion running, as it will then only have 1GB RAM available to it but will revert to the full 2GB once you close Fusion.
	QUOTE Thanks

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