Maximum PC

OK, is Virtualization technology all that important when using a virtual machine?? The reason I'm asking this is because my laptop has a CPU without virtualization but I want to be able to run XP mode in Win7 Pro (I know there is a patch to allow it to run on PCs without virtualization), but I guess my question really becomes "What does virtualizsation do for a system?"

My primary purpose for using a VM is to run IE and FireFox under XP (so I can use IE6 and FF2.x to test websites I build), so speed isn't too much of an issue, as long as the VM doesn't crash, or the host doesn't freeze up.

Well, hardware virtualization makes a massive performance difference. Without, all you're doing is emulating another computer, which is extremely slow. I don't know if you know anything about console emulators, but even modern computers have trouble emulating a Gamecube from... a very long time ago. That's the difference VT makes.

OK, but it isn't REQUIRED (for example) to run XP Mode. Like I said, as long as it is decent at responding (I know it won't be like running on a quad with VT), but like I said, my main purpose for this is so I can test websites with older versions of IE and FF.

(And I'm dealing mainly with CSS-related concerns, so performance isn't too much of an issue for me, as long as--like I said-- the host system and/or the VM doesn't crash. I guess I can deal with slowness, just not crashes or BSODs).

But then again, I guess it's hard to say yes or no because each system is different and each user's preference can vary, and my definition of slow may differ from someone else's.

Read this VMWare PDF if you want a more in-depth picture.

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