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Will my computer be able to cope?

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  • 2nd February 2012 at 12:38 pm #2576
    Mandy
    Member

    Hi

     

    I attended the Day 1 – Introduction to Nvivo workshop on 24th January and am intending to get the free 30 day trial and have a go at using Nvivo before the 2nd workshop on 28th Feb.

     

    I use a MacBook, which has Word on it.  Here is the information it carries about itself:

     

     

    Hardware Overview:

     

      Model Name: MacBook

      Model Identifier: MacBook4,1

      Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

      Processor Speed: 2.1 GHz

      Number Of Processors: 1

      Total Number Of Cores: 2

      L2 Cache: 3 MB

      Memory: 2 GB

      Bus Speed: 800 MHz

      Boot ROM Version: MB41.00C1.B00

      SMC Version (system): 1.31f1

      Serial Number (system): W88440RF3VY

      Hardware UUID: D56DCD25-1F2B-570A-A21A-55D61E5D8D5F

      Sudden Motion Sensor:

      State: Enabled

     
    I've had this MacBook for 3 or 4 years and am nervous that it may not be able to cope with Nvivo, given how memory hungry Nvivo is.  I'm considering buying a separate laptop, which I would dedicate to Nvivo for the duration of this project. 
     
    Is this totally unnecessary or a good idea?  If it is a good idea, could you guide me about what I should look for in the new laptop, bearing in mind that I'd be looking for something as inexpensive as possible.
     
    Thank you very much for your advice.
    2nd February 2012 at 5:47 pm #2893
    QDATRAINING Admin
    Member

     

    There are two problems to address here Mandy. The first one is the spec of the MAC. It is too low on RAM for example to cope with running NVivo in a MAC environment. This takes us to your second problem. To run NVivo on a MAC, you must install Windows Parallel which splits the resources between the MAC operating system and NVivo. So your two gigabyte MAC now delivers one gigabyte on the MAC side and the same to Windows which means you are now down to the minimum spec that it’s possible to run NVivo on. I think your idea of a dedicated machine for the project is a good one which cuts out all of the aforementioned problems. I’m sure the machine will not go to waste after the project and hardware has never been cheaper. You could get a range of laptops in the likes of PC World for four to five hundred Euros which would easily give you six gigabytes of RAM which would handle NVivo very comfortably. 

    Kind regards,

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