Virtual Box

Ok i just ordered my MBP and when i get it i want to play some games so ive been looking at my running xp options,
ive found bootcamp, parallel, and vitualbox sofar.
bootcamp - free, but you have to restart your mac everytime u wana swtich.
parallel - cost money
virtual box - runs as a window ontop of my mac desktop - free

(correct me if im wrong.)

anyways, virtualbox seems to be the best imo......?
anybody have it, run it?
how it work
have u played video games with it?
Thanks!

Ugh. I wouldn't personally run an OS on top of another - too resource intensive. I can see where this would come in handy from time to time, but on a regular basis I don't know why someone would want to do this. Immediate access to "foreign" software perhaps?

You can run one OS on top of another quite happily, your MBP is more than capable; I use this all the time. But you won't get far running any games in it. For game you really need to use BootCamp.

so parallel...
from what i saw u can press a key combo and the screen flips and your automatically in windows?
hows that for gaming, i kinda just wana be able to switch os fastly and be able to game smoothly. and when i same game i mean like battlefield2142 and crysis when it comes out....

As knightlie stated above, if you're a hardcore gamer and want the best frame rates while playing you will want to go to Boot Camp.

The only way you will know if any game plays smoothly enuff for you in emulation is going to be try it for yourself.
The third option for emulation is VMWare Fusion and seems many are now going with this one.
All the posts I have seen related to virtualbox being the best have stated only one reason - it's free - and most of those had not even tried Parallels nor VMWare Fusion. Free can sometimes be better, but not because it is free.

Yes, evaluate them all, but I don't think you'll be satisfied with games under a VM, you'll probably end up using BootCamp.

EEK!!!
i hope your not trying to play anything graphic intense...
windows uses a considerable amount of processing power on its own lets alone running along side another operating system..

If i was you i would use bootcamp for gaming, the restart isnt to extensive either (Y)