How to save over $200 on Parallels for the Mac + Windows
Written on 5/31/2006
Parallels playing WMV HD with sound in a Mac OS X Window (click for full size).
Parallels is a new software product that allows Windows to run on top of Mac OS X in a Window. It’s similar to Microsoft’s Virtual PC for the Mac, but it runs much faster because it uses a feature in newer Intel chips called Virtualization. This means that your “guest” operating system, such as Windows, runs at nearly native speeds. The main disadvantage of Parallels is that it doesn’t yet support DirectX, and it may never be fast for gaming. But, for any application that doesn’t need intense graphics, Parallels is amazingly fast, especially in the latest release candidate 2.
So, I’ll tell you how to save a lot of money getting your Parallels install up and running. Because Parallels doesn’t come with a Windows license, normally you would need to purchase a full copy of Windows XP to run Parallels, which can run up to $299 for Windows XP Pro (non-upgrade). Parallels itself recently increased the price of the product, when released, to $79. I’ll show you how to reduce a potential $378 total for both to as little as $174.
Step 1: Buy Parallels now
Parallels recently increased the price of the released product from $49 to $79. I think this is still an excellent value, but for now you can still purchase Parallels before release for $39. Parallels is already at Release Candidate 2, so hurry if you want to save on this. Potential savings: $40.
Step 2: Buy a Windows license
Option 1: Buy a Windows upgrade license
If you have an old copy of Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Windows ME lying around, you’re eligible to use the upgrade version of Windows XP. Details are on the Microsoft site. Using this method, you can get XP Pro for $199 versus $299. Note that OEM licenses that come with a machine generally aren’t eligible for upgrading like this, more on that below. Potential savings: $100.
Option 2: Buy a Windows OEM license
The Windows OEM license is usually sold to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM’s) for inclusion with a full system. You can also purchase these licenses yourself. Requirements vary store by store. NewEgg supposedly will sell you the license with any hardware purchase at all. Fry’s will sell you an OEM license in-store, but only if you purchase RAM, a motherboard, or a hard drive.
OEM prices are a lot less than retail prices. At Newegg, XP Pro OEM will only cost you $134.95! Potential savings: $164.
Potential issues with this approach. An OEM license is *not* upgradable. Vista pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but if you’re thinking of being a bleeding-edge techie and running Vista using Parallels, you might end up spending more for a Vista license. Personally, I see Parallels as a way to keep old software running, so I don’t foresee a lot of people wanting to do this on day one. The ones that do want to do this probably have access to MSDN licenses to Vista anyway, you ubergeeks you.
Adding up the savings, you could save $164 on XP Pro plus $40 on Parallels, so that’s $208 you can save off the full cost. Using this technique, your total cost for implementing Parallels plus XP is $174. This compares well with $235 for Virtual PC plus Windows XP.
Questions? Fire away!
Bearer of the obvious here, but this also works for getting a cheap Win XP license for Boot Camp as well (or a closet PC, or whatever else). That much is common. The gem exists in the fact that Parallels uses an image file on your current disk and BC wants a new partition, so it’s worth snagging Parallels at this price today to avoid the mess of a partition resize and reboot.
Now if only Parallels would use a drive partition on the Mac version, one could share an install of Windows between the two methods… -sigh-
Heya Adam, nice to see you stopping by.
Agreed about boot camp and parallels sharing the same install, I can see a lot of people wanting to run Parallels for productivity apps and Boot Camp for games. I wonder if activation works if you try to activate the same copy of Windows in both separate installs? The new “Genuine Advantage” validator seems kind of aggressive.
It’s overly aggressive and we had one of our copies banned for that. Well, it was in five VMs on the machine so it’s understandable, and a call to MS fixed it, but … it was not fun.
We might look for a version that doesn’t need activation here soon because it’s so damned annoying.
[...] My guess is that Leopard will natively offer something similar to Parallels (perhaps in addition to Boot Camp, which offers speeds indispensable to hardcore PC gamers) for running Windows XP in OS X and we’ll all be able to purchase a Mac from Apple with Windows XP Pro pre-installed as a built-to order option for around $140, or less for Home Edition. Notice also that Apple’s Windows site mentions Parallels Desktop instead of Boot Camp. Why $140? A Windows XP Pro OEM copy costs about $140. (See here for an explanation of buying Windows OEM). Whether this will spell the end to development of certain Mac software apps such as Microsoft Office for OS X will probably depend on whether five years from now most Windows-come-Mac users are spending the majority of their time running native OS X apps or Windows apps through the next generation virtualized Windows OS on the Mac OS. As Dvorak puts it, “Business eventually trumps sentimentality in any large company.” We will all have to wait and see whether it would be cost effective for Microsoft to continue developing Office for OS X five years from now. [...]
Too bad they don’t offer a discount anymore on Parallels…
I bought a MacBook for like 4 weeks ago with 512 MB ram, but then switching from and to Parallels was very slow, then I was on vacation and bought 2x 1 GB very cheap there, didn’t expect it to be soo much faster with more memory.
I really regret that I didnt purchase it right away because a (Black) MacBook + 2 GB ram was already a lot of money for someone who is just 16 like me