Use Vmware on 2nd hard drive

You would get a marginal performance improvement but vms have quite a high cpu overhead so do not expect a huge performance increase.

cereberus said:

You would get a marginal performance improvement but vms have quite a high cpu overhead so do not expect a huge performance increase.

Hi there

VM's actually do NOT have a huge CPU overhead - unless of course there is a lot of intensive CPU type work being done on the VM - normal workloads don't incur a huge overhead.

The BIGGEST factors on VM performance are of course availability of RAM and HDD / SSD speed.

Assuming you have sufficient RAM in your computer the best way to gain best performance for your VM is to run it off an SSD. If you have to use Spinners - then get one with the fastest RPM (7200 at least) and THE LARGEST CACHE SIZE POSSIBLE -- I suspect that as there are a load of cheap high capacity 5400 RPM HDD's on the market but with tiny cache amounts -- these really KILL performance - even if you have an I7 processor.

A decent graphics card helps as well -- also the Host shouldn't be under too much load if you want concurrent decent performance from the VM.

Again often it's the efficiency of the HDD that is the biggest blockage into vm performance -- followed by RAM -- these days not having enough RAM is rarely an issue --even cheap laptops have 8 GB -- more than enough to run a Windows host and any sort of VM - other Windows or a Linux VM etc.

If you keep VM and HOST OS'es on the same HDD you will get quite a considerable performance degradation --especially at VM power on (boot) -- you'll probably see the HDD light on continuously for several minutes as the VM powers on. On an SSD you can usually get away with it though.

Added

--BTW even on an external SSD a VM should perform quite nicely -- best if you use a SATA-->USB3 connector but even with a USB2 connector it will work fine.

A good use for any older 110 / 120 GB SSD's you might have over from earlier models --good use for these BTW.

Cheers
jimbo