windows 7 on mac

[veritasxsaint]

I have a macbook and was planning on building a new computer, as it turns out i won't be able to do it for another few months but i want to play PC only games, like swtor when it comes out. So my question is. Will using boot camp to put windows 7 on my computer run games fine and how much of my hard drive should i partition? Hearing from people who have done this would be ideal but i am willing to listen to anyone who bothers posting. Thanks in advance.

[Tyrianth]

Why wouldn't work fine? Just install the drivers from your OSX dvd.As for space, it depends on the size of your harddrive and how much you're willing to sacrifice. I have 80gb partitioned for windows 7, but I only use it for school you may want more space if you plan on installing games.

[veritasxsaint]

Thanks that helps, i have about 93gb of free space on my harddrive currently, prob 30 or more gb of used space would free up because i would delete the game files i currently have and move them to windows side. I'm thinking 90gb would be good but im not really sure how much the actually OS takes up.

[MrPistachio]

I couldn't tell you how much the OS takes up as a whole, but my 'Windows' folder by itself is 18.6 gb so you should be good for room if you only plan on a few games at a time.

[veritasxsaint]

oh yeah that should be plenty of room then. that's basically all of my questions then thanks guys

[Deleted]

I'm using Parallels to emulate windows, and it works wonder.

[Tikaru]

I use a Windows emulator program on my Linux machine, is there anything like that for Mac? Seems like a waste of time and money of purchasing an (expensive) OS and using up storage...

[Deleted]

I use a Windows emulator program on my Linux machine, is there anything like that for Mac? Seems like a waste of time and money of purchasing an (expensive) OS and using up storage...

I thought they called that Boot Camp. Though I've never used a Mac for more then 5 minutes, so I'm not 100% sure.

[Lefeng]

Boot Camp is the method that comes installed on all Macs recently. It provides dual-boot functionality. Parallels is a another method which runs Windows in emulation mode, in a "shell" on the Mac desktop.

[vesseblah]

I thought they called that Boot Camp. Though I've never used a Mac for more then 5 minutes, so I'm not 100% sure.

Boot Camp is what Apple calls the dual boot feature which allows you to switch between OS X and Windows 7 while booting the PC. It only repartitions the disc and adds boot menu, you have to install Win7 manually from legit media.

---------- Post added 2011-03-13 at 04:59 PM ----------

Parallels is a another method which runs Windows in emulation mode, in a "shell" on the Mac desktop.

Parallels is virtual machine software, plain and simple. Same as VMWare or VirtualBox, but it has improved desktop integration between guest and host OS.

[Tikaru]

Boot Camp is what Apple calls the dual boot feature which allows you to switch between OS X and Windows 7 while booting the PC. It only repartitions the disc and adds boot menu, you have to install Win7 manually from legit media.

---------- Post added 2011-03-13 at 04:59 PM ----------



Parallels is virtual machine software, plain and simple. Same as VMWare or VirtualBox, but it has improved desktop integration between guest and host OS.

So, the only way to run Windows program on a Mac is to either go with a dual-boot or go with a VM? That's both lame and expensive then...

[Lefeng]

Boot Camp is included with Mac OS (so that's free). No matter which method you go with, you still have to buy a copy of Windows to install.

[Tikaru]

Another option that might work would be to dual-boot your Mac with Ubuntu and then get Wine (Windows emulator) to play those games. That way you don't have to pay over $100 for an OS just to play some games.

[vesseblah]

Another option that might work would be to dual-boot your Mac with Ubuntu and then get Wine (Windows emulator) to play those games. That way you don't have to pay over $100 for an OS just to play some games.

Too bad Wine is not 100% compatible with games. Or even 90% compatible.

It works for WoW, but emulation is still emulation, and your results are unpredictable with it. There is an OSX port of it afaik, but it works even worse than the linux version.

[casby]

WoW runs on OSX just fine. Actually runs better on my mac than on my win 7 pc.

As for BootCamp, it's free and built into OSX. Partition the space you want, install 2nd OS. Done. One computer. Multiple OS. Solid machine.

[veritasxsaint]

I do have one more question i forgot to ask. I'm pretty sure i cant just transfer my WoW folder from mac to windows side, but which parts of it can i move over safely? Such as WTF folder and things along those lines that save my settings.

[casby]

You can try hooking your mac to your pc as a source drive via firewire (running your mac as an external hdd) and just try to run the program from the /applications folder. If it works, just drag the baby on over and you should be fine. If not, you can say you tried to get creative.

Preference (WTF/Interface) folders should theoretically transfer just fine. But that could be discrediting Murphy's Law.

[Chenz]

Weird, WoW runs better on my W7 computer thanon my friends mac. It's not WoW he wanted W7 for though.

Also, what is boot camp? If I install a second OS on my computer, my motherboard automagically asks me what OS I want use when I boot. What do you need any extra software for?

[Brett Skullcrack]

Too bad Wine is not 100% compatible with games. Or even 90% compatible.

It works for WoW, but emulation is still emulation, and your results are unpredictable with it.

What did Wine stand for again... Oh yeah, Wine is not an emulator.

There is an OSX port of it afaik, but it works even worse than the linux version.

There is an official OS X version of WoW sold by Blizzard that works perfectly. It even has more functionality than the Windows client, for example, built in video recording. So no reason to run it using Wine on OS X.

[Tyrianth]

Weird, WoW runs better on my W7 computer thanon my friends mac. It's not WoW he wanted W7 for though.

Also, what is boot camp? If I install a second OS on my computer, my motherboard automagically asks me what OS I want use when I boot. What do you need any extra software for?

Bootcamp is a tool to install the actual OS from start to finish. Partitions the harddrive, installs the OS, and installs any drivers for Windows.