I have a project coming up that requires me to generate some models in Excel that are compatible with Windows 7/Excel 2010 and Windows XP/Excel 2003. All very simple, except that the client has a US affiliate that run Macs, and they use VMWare to run the WindowsXP/Excel 2003 combo.

I'm trying to decide if I need to replicate this configuration precisely, or if I can just stick with Windows 7, and run Excel 2003 and 2010 versions for compatibility checking.

Have any of you encountered difficulties running Windows applications (Excel specifically, ideally) under VMWare in a Mac environment that weren't present running it on a regular PC with XP installed?

I'm assuming that with VMWare, it should work precisely the same as if it's running 'natively'. Is that true, or are there subtleties that aren't immediately obvious.

Separately, I need to order a kick-ass new computer to do all this. Is it possible to get one that can boot to both the Mac OS and Windows 7? I'm looking to put together a pretty serious business workstation, supporting dual monitors. I don't need fancy graphics (enough power to support dual monitors/HD video and not slow it down, but I won't be gaming) or sound, but I want it to be damn snappy at booting, loading apps, switching between applications, recalculating large spreadsheets, that sort of thing, so...

1) Any recommendations on a good source for that, or do I need to find someone local to do a custom build?
2) I need a (actually, two) good, decent-sized (24"+), high resolution (better than 1080p, preferably), quality monitor with a thin bezel for the dual setup. Any recommendations?
3) Are solid-state hard drives worth the cost in terms of performance? I keep all my data in a separate set of standalone drives, so I don't need huge storage capability, but I want the hard drive to be quick. I used to have a RAID 0 setup, but one drive failed, and I lost a lot of important data - hence the RAID 1 + daily cloud backup that I currently use.
4) Where's the real bottleneck in PC performance these days? Is is worth the cost for the faster RAM speeds? Is there an amount of RAM where the cost of addressing it slows it down, or is more better indefinitely.
5) Anything I'm not thinking of in terms of buying a kick-ass system that won't bog down for a few years at least?

Thanks in advance.

 

As to the doze version of Excel, why would you need to run it? The Mac version will do everything it will, generally in a better way. One of the great ironies of the software world is that Office for Mac is a significantly better product than for doze.

Any Intel Mac will.

You won't be running OS X on anything not made by Apple. A base config Mac Pro will do everything you need it to do.

Buying a Mac and not buying Apple displays is just silly. They use the best panels available. The 27" Cinema display will do everything you need it to do, though two of them will eat up quite a bit of desk real estate.

For general business use, no. For video, audio and other disk intensive tasks, kinda. It depends how much capacity you need and where a striped array makes more sense.

If you don't need more than 512GB in a mirrored setup, two SSDs are probably worth the money. If you want a multi terabyte mirror, I personally could not justify the cost for business apps.

Generally speaking, IO Bus and hard drives. Memory depends largely on what you're doing. If you're running OS X in a business environment, you're not going to feel the difference between 4GB and more than 4GB. However, if you're running VMs and a billion apps, 8GB may be a good idea. More than that is unlikely to yield a noticeable performance benefit. Intensive compilation and rendering tasks is another matter, however.

As to what memory to buy, the best you can find. Apple's memory is very high grade, which is why it sells at a premium over generic crap.

Nothing holds its value and performance better than a Mac. One of my desktop machines is a PPC G5, approaching seven years old, and it still runs everything I need it to run with perfectly acceptable performance.

 

The only question I can answer is 4 and even then, it's not going to be the best answer. The bottleneck = HDD speed. With a fast enough processor and enough RAM, your HDD will slow things down, and there's nothing you can do about it unfortunately. Also, if you do RAM upgrades, always do them yourself (buy a computer + RAM separately and just stick the RAM in when you get a chance). It'll save you some cash.

 

That's not necessarily the case. Once you deal with SAS drives in striped arrays, especially when connected via a fiber bus, they'll take as much as you can give and more. Granted, at significantly higher cost, power consumption and heat.

Buying cheapass memory is not a sound piece of advice. Cheap, higher CAS latency memory can significantly impact performance versus the good stuff. While it's true you can buy very good memory at a discount, for most people, saving $40 bucks or so isn't worth the hassle.

 

Yea, that's true. I get caught up in the assumption that most people buy things online/in the store and the most customizing they do is picking an upgrade from a list of 1-3 possibilities. For those individuals it's better to just figure out what memory will be compatible, purchase it, open up their case/laptop and replace or add the card (imo, at least). I guess it doesn't really apply in this situation though.

 

Would like to add that SSD makes a significant difference specifically if you're rebooting constantly (as you suggest).

And bear in mind that VBA and macros wont work for 2008 version of Microsoft Excel for Mac, also no data analysis tool pack (was a horrible version and marked a painful time in my life).

 

They may not in Office 2008, but they do in Office 2011.

 

Thanks for all the help. I'll give some thought to whether I can cross the valley, and find comfort in the world of Mac. Are they nice to refugees?

 

While I agree it runs far better than what it does on a PC, let's not get too carried away - the only thing that ever crashes on my MBP is Word or Excel.

 

Well, it's still a Microsoft product.