Hi

I noticed that the latest version of Boinc software came with the option of also loading Virtual Box.

Is there any benefit to loading Virtual Box and would having a "Virtual Machine" installed on my system have any detrimental effect on the day to day running of my machine.

My machine is a duo core system running 64 Bit Windows 7 with 4 GB of Ram.

Can someone advise me please.


Thanks
Jon

For some projects the installation of VirtualBox is needed, although for none of them you have to create virtual machines yourself.

Afaik the projects are: vLHCathome, ATLAS@Home, RNA World, Climate@Home and Beauty@LHC.

So if you don't plan to join one of these projects you can download BOINC without the VBox option.

When needed, it's even better to install VirtualBox yourself to get the right version (4.3.12)

Newer VBox-versions don't cooperate well with BOINC together.

It is also helpful to know what you use your PC for on a regular basis and how you have your BOINC settings. Most of the Virtualbox capable projects noted above want 3GB or more of RAM just for the VM. You may also need ~8GB or more space on your computer just for the work units. If you leave these projects running while the computer is in use, then you will most likely see a very noticeable impact. If you have them pause while the system is active it will be hit and miss as BOINC tries to pause those VMs. I personally don't recommend running these projects with a dual core with that low of RAM unless it is a dedicated DC'ing box.