* New Mac with Parallels and Windows

[RoyDavies48]

I have been using Family Historian on my Apple Mac Power Book with Parallels and Widows 10 for the past 8 years but the time has come for me to buy a new Mac. My existing one has 16 GB of RAM and 500 GB of soldi state memory (both quite a lot for a laptop bought in 2016). As I would like my new machine to last for 7 or 8 years would 24 GB of 'RAM and one terabyte of solid state memory be enough or would that probably be inadequate for the versions of FH, Parallels and Windows that will be around in about another 5 years?

I would be grateful for any advice.

Regards,

Roy

[Valkrider]

I have just replaced my Intel iMac with a new M3 one. I went for 24gB and 2Tb as I also do some photo editing and web design. I run FH and AS under Crossover rather than with Parallels. You will need the Arm version of Windows 11 to run under Parallels with the Apple Silicon chips as an Arm version of Windows 10 is not available, whereas in Crossover you can run as Windows 10. Some people do not like Windows 11. I would have thought that your suggested spec is more than adequate.

[RoyDavies48]

Many thanks. That information is both useful and encouraging!

Regards.

Roy

[Gary_G]

Roy;

For at least a year, I've run FH7 on an M1 Mac mini on Windows 11 using the Parallels virtual machine. I have 16 Gb of RAM and 500 Gb SSD. Everything works fine. So; I suspect that just about any configuration of Apple-silicon Mac will also work well for FH, as mine isn't anything special. It's your photo-editing apps that really need the horsepower. However; for the reasons below, I've started to buy a lower-cost unit that will do for the present and replace it more frequently. That leaves me more in the budget for the newer software that only runs on newer units.

As for longevity...
Macs are generally fully supported for about 5 years. However; I still use a 2012 Intel MacBook for travelling and it's still works quite well from a physical perspective. I would suggest that it is mainly the software that should concern you from a longevity perspective, not the hardware. I've noticed that updated software is being released almost yearly and is often tailored to the most recent hardware. The push towards subscription model licenses is making this issue even more acute. This does not yet appear to be an issue for FH, but it definitely is for photo-related packages.

[Tony Jones]

I'm also looking to replace my 2017 model iMac this year. Can I ask how you squeeze parallels and MacOS onto t 500 GB disc? Do you use Parallels snapshots? My Parallels partition is around 250 GB, and my system disc (I added an external 1 TB SSD and cloned across, which causes no end of problems) is showing 550 GB used.

I would definitely go 1 TB internal disc on an upgrade, just interested to know how others have set up Parallels. I hope this isn't too far off topic!

[Valkrider]

I have just replaced my 2015 iMac. I pushed the boat out and went for an iMac M3 with 24gB of ram and a 2Tb SSD. If it lasts for the nearly10 years that the old one did I will be happy. I don't use parallels but do use Crossover and am happy with the performance and reduced overhead.

[Gary_G]

I'm also looking to replace my 2017 model iMac this year. Can I ask how you squeeze parallels and MacOS onto t 500 GB disc? Do you use Parallels snapshots? My Parallels partition is around 250 GB, and my system disc (I added an external 1 TB SSD and cloned across, which causes no end of problems) is showing 550 GB used.

I would definitely go 1 TB internal disc on an upgrade, just interested to know how others have set up Parallels. I hope this isn't too far off topic!

Tony;
I used the default setup for Parallels, except for setting it to use "Coherence" mode. I use the ARM version of Windows 11 that is offered by default upon setup of Parallels. I have all my genealogy programs and other apps on the computer and still have 211 GB available. So; it obviously fits in a 500Gb drive and works well.

I would like to hear about your issues with your external drive, because I'm thinking of getting a 1-2 TB SSD for keeping some of my data files.

[Tony Jones]

Tony;
I used the default setup for Parallels, except for setting it to use "Coherence" mode. I use the ARM version of Windows 11 that is offered by default upon setup of Parallels. I have all my genealogy programs and other apps on the computer and still have 211 GB available. So; it obviously fits in a 500Gb drive and works well.

I would like to hear about your issues with your external drive, because I'm thinking of getting a 1-2 TB SSD for keeping some of my data files.

I think I'll abandon the snapshots and stop wasting disc space. Reading around people just make a copy of the VM file if they feel the need and integrate with Time Machine.

My external disc problem won't affect you. My iMac has an internal hybrid drive. I bought an external SSD to get more space (for Parallels!) and improve performance. I cloned the Internal Drive but it's still in there.
The first problem I had is the docking bar icons all pointed to the Internal Drive version of files, even though I boot from the new disc. It seems the OS doesn't work from / but uses the name Internal Drive as well. Over a few months as I upgraded software, I kept getting very weird results (I was running old versions!)

The other issue is many software developers assume your setup is with the Internal Drive named as root. I dabble in music production and had an issue moving licence files around to an external USB drive. The licence manager thinks the licences should be somewhere on the internal drive but can't move them for some reason that made no sense to me. In the end I had to get the supplier to let me reset my installation. Pain in the proverbial.

As I said you won't get that problem with just a data disc — I also have one of those for my vast music software libraries

Thanks for your input on my question