Performance hit for a i7QM - VM or Dual?

[bljoseph]

I was having a hard time placing this question in a forum but in the end its all about CPU performance and I figure this is the best place. I just purchased a laptop with a 2720QM and 8GB of memory. I figure many have experimented with virtual machines and/or dual boot. Lets say I wanted to do experimental stuff and run a Windows OS as a guest of the same OS. I figure I will have ample memory speed. I don't know how well the VM's take advantage of multiple core's/threads and the likely hit on performance. I have been unable to find any good benchmarks on having two "heavy" OS as brethren in a VM environment on a sandy bridge. Im hoping I can VM which would be convenient but what would be a likely trigger to choose dual boot given my spec? Thanks in advance.

 

[natefostersr]

im not sure but take a look a the guide
http://apcmag.com/the_definitive_dualbooting_guide_linux_vista_and_xp_stepbystep.htm