The Single Most Important Virtual Machine Performance Tip

If you want to go-faster or use large drives, use these in an expresscard slot:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817364026
Koutech IO-EEU230 2.5" Black USB 3.0 External Enclosure w/ One-Touch Backup
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839104025
Koutech IO-ECU230 Dual Channel SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ExpressCard

If you use an SSD drive and you can easily see over 100MB/s. Very nice. Good luck.

Also, do not forget GPU and driver performance for VM:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2883684/can-gpu-capabilities-impact-virtual-machine-performance