Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac was released this week and I was eager to see if there was a big improvement over previous versions.  We’re an all Mac shop and we primarily use Windows for testing purposes.  Our test machines consist of a Windows XP environment with IE6 and now Windows 7 with IE7/IE8 and the latest version of Firefox.  There are no additional programs installed in those environments.  Since I don’t use Windows all that often since Apple has transitioned to Intel machines I’ve used every version of Parallels.  Ideally I’d like to keep a virtual machine running at all times for easy toggling and real-time testing while developing sites.

The problem with doing this is it tends to cause my computers to run extremely slow.  I don’t have a Mac Pro, but I do have a variety the latest MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iMacs, and Mac Minis.  All of which are pretty modern with the latest Core 2 Duo processors and maxed out RAM (usually 4GB).  On a typical development setup I’ll usually have Mail.app, Tweetie, Adium, Skype, Webkit, Evernote, iCal, iTunes, Coda, and YummyFTP.  I’ll also occasionally have Firefox, Photoshop, Navicat, Versions, and Pages open depending on the project.  All of these programs run pretty well on any of the setups above.  When I add Parallels or VMWare Fusion to the mix everything comes to a halt.  I realize I’m running a lot of programs and running an additional operating system might be asking too much.  With that being said it’s really a vanilla install of Windows with Firefox and no additional programs running at startup.  With machines with only 2GB of RAM like my MacBook Air I won’t attempt launching the VM even when I’m not running any of the usual programs.

Previous versions of Parallels it eventually lead me to install Windows 7 on a Mac Mini via Bootcamp.  I was lucky enough to test Windows 7 though all the beta stages and I was able to test development on the new operating system before it was released last week.  The Bootcamp environment was obviously much better and it’s expected since I’m running one operating system instead of two.  It got me thinking is it worth it buying Parallels year after year or am I better of just using Bootcamp or even buying a cheap PC with some version of Windows 7.  When I’m developing offsite at a client location, I like to have a VM on the machine to test and having an additional PC isn’t really an option.

Now Parallels Desktop 5 is out and I’ve downloaded the trial and upgraded my two virtual machines.  It still runs a little slow for my liking to use as a full-time open application, but once it’s up and running it seems to work well even with the other applications open.  Boot up and shut down still seem pretty slow.  If I do use Parallels I’ll probably keep the VM open throughout the development session.  I’ll have to work with it more, before making a decision.

Have you been using the new version and what are your opinions on it?  Do you have any suggestions on setting the VM up better to improve performance?