Parallels Desktop 14 requires at least 1 GHz Pentium processor, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB video card, and 1 GB storage to run. Regularly back up data to external storage like hard drives, CDs/DVDs, or USB drives. Using flash storage like a USB drive or SD card with ReadyBoost can provide a slight performance boost by allowing more frequent and faster access to data in RAM versus on a hard drive.