Boot Camp vs. Parallels

The Nazarite

I recently acquired a new 20" iMac from a friend with Leopard pre-installed, and I would like to install Windows, either through Boot Camp or Parallels.

What are the upsides and downsides of Boot Camp and Parallels?

I figure that Boot Camp runs Windows faster, but by how much? I'm going to be using Windows primarily for gaming and maybe AutoCAD.

I'm only considering Parallels because a friend told me that partitioning a drive long after the OS is installed can be harmful for the computer. Is that true?

Thanks.

Zoolander

You will not be able to game using Parallels and AutoCAD won't be much better. For these graphics-intensive tasks, Boot Camp is your only option. The downside of Bootcamp is you have to reboot your computer each time you want to switch from Windows to OS X. Partitioning your hard drive shouldn't be a problem.

You could also install both Bootcamp and Parallels (or VMWare Fusion, which is better than Parallel IMO). That way you can go into Bootcamp when you want to game and use Parallels when you want to do something else that doesn't require 3D graphics. Both Parallels and VMWare can access the Bootcamp partition, so you won't need to install Windows twice or anything.

Silvertree

What Zoolander said except I haven't tried Fusion yet.

"I'm only considering Parallels because a friend told me that partitioning a drive long after the OS is installed can be harmful for the computer. Is that true?"

No. That is not true.

lunchbox12682

While I haven't used Parallels, I have used Fusion and it has the same issue. 3D is nearly useless and only "supported" with directx 8, barely.

Divebommah

I use both Boot Camp and Parallels -- Parallels accesses my Boot Camp partition for when I need to do random MS Office crap, otherwise Boot camp for gaming.

Under Parallels, I find older games (3+ years old), roguelikes, etc., if they run at all, tend to run okay on my Macbook Pro. Quake 4 is playable, though ugly as sin. Aquaria is smooth as silk, too.