What's the cheapest mac development box possible?

Question

Simple question really, I would like to learn some cocoa, primarily for playing around with the Iphone SDK, but first i need a mac.

Macs are expensive, but I don't know at what point an old mac moves from a bargain to a doorstop.

• How cheap and old can I go to have an ok mac development machine?

• Is there any other way to have a good dev machine for the platform without buying a mac and without doing illegal virtualization / dual booting of OSx86?

• Is virtualizing a real purchased OSX legal?

• What Virtual Machines will run it?

Thanks in advance all.

EDIT 2009-03-05

Just wanted to say thanks for all who answered / commented on this, its been really useful and now there's a new Mac Mini I might have to splash out soon to get one!

Answer 1

I bought a Mac mini and I downloaded Xcode and the iPhone SDK from Apple's Developer Connection page. I connected an existing 20" display.

It worked for me, but I have to admit that I didn't work on huge projects. I did it just for fun and I never had any performance issues.

You can get the 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB memory, 80GB hard drive model at $ 599,- or - if you live in Europe - € 499,- (October 2008).

In any case: if you want to develop for the iPhone, you'll need an Intel processor based Mac (iPhone SDK).

Off topic, but maybe this could influence your decision: I use the Mac mini at home to VPN in my Windows-based company network and connect to Windows machines using the Microsoft Remote Desktop Application for the Mac. Works great!

Answer 2

Developing on a Mac Mini works quite well: it's not the fastest machine out there (especially when it comes to disk access) and expandability is limited, but unless you're planning on building huge projects, you should be fine.

Running OS X on any non-Apple hardware (whether virtualized or not) is a violation of the license agreement, so you don't want to go down that road. As far as I know, there are no off-the-shelf emulators that run it anyway, and the custom-built hardware I've seen for it has been quite dodgy as well...

Answer 3

The first generation Intel iMac (the white one) are good enough for xcode development. You can find them pretty cheap on second-hand markets. Just remember to load up the memory as far as you can, I think the white iMacs can take 2gb, which is enough for a starter.

Answer 4

You should check Apple's refurb shop. You get a nice shiney mac with full warranty and a few quid off the retail price. I bought my 2Ghz mini from the UK online refurb outlet which knocked £75 off the price. I got mine to try out development on a non-windows platform without all my usual MS dev toys.

But it all depends on how much you want to spend. I thought about getting a Power PC based model from ebay but decided spending the extra on an Intel model was better value in the long run (and who knows when Apple might decide to stop supporting the PPC units). It was a bit more expensive, but I'm glad I did now because I'm really pleasantly surprised by how nice OS X is.

I bootcamped mine with Vista and installed Parallels which is real nice because I can launch Windows apps in their own windows without having them live in a single VM console window. It now kinda makes me wish I'd blew a bigger wad on a MacPro 8 core :).

I'd also thought about the Hackintosh thing but decided against because it's a license violation and also who knows how long it'd be before it broke after some Apple update. I'm a great believer in doing stuff right first time, I've been a cheapskate in the past and it bit me later.

I'd say spend the money and get as late a model as you can afford, you won't regret it...and that's coming from a dyed in the wool windows kinda guy.

Answer 5

The next MacBook releases are meant to include some cheaper machines. It is possibly that Apple will come out with a cheaper Mac Mini as well, but maybe not at the same time.

what this ultimately means is that the refurb shop MacBooks and Mac Minis could be significantly cheaper in just a week's time (or whenever the updates are released).

Answer 6

A few things of note:

1. You need apple hardware to have any form of OS X be in accordance with the OS X end user license agreement. wether or not this "contract" is legally binding is still up for debate.
2. If you want to do any kind of iPhone development your xcode environment requires the CPU architecture to be x86, so no G4 or G5 systems
3. I get by perfectly on a stock Macbook Pro (revision 1) But realistically i believe you can get by with any Core Duo or Core 2 Duo Mac regardless of speed, but you will need at least 1GB RAM, preferably more.
4. be careful, Core Duo macs usually support only upto 3GB ram thanks to some flaw in the ram chipset. But if you want to max it out, you'll have to put in 4GB (2x 2GB) and leave 1GB completely unused

If you're not going to be requiring a laptop, I'd recommend you go for the biggest screen current iMac you can afford (new).

P.S. check the link to the refurbished items, it is on the lower left of the main store page. apple store (USA)

Answer 7

It's not the cheapest solution, but affordable and mobil: get the white macbook.

It is plenty fast for development, remember your iphone is about the speed of a decade old imac. I use the external display as a second monitor, dual screen setup is a must I think (you often need the documentation when starting ;) You can only have one monitor on a mac mini, at least without getting an external display splitter.

And you'll thank me later for being able to take it to starbucks or your venture capitalist.

Answer 8

I also started out with a Intel Mac mini but the 5400rpm drive really slowed things down and it had a max of 2GB of RAM. Also was I running on a 24 inch monitor, so its slow video card didn't help.

The next upgrade, without a monitor, would be the mac pro which is really expensive. But i'd suggest to go on ebay and you can buy the dual 2.66 models for around $1500-$1700 depending on the upgrade. Just make sure you can getcAppleCare to cover the parts on you're good to go.

Answer 9

Buy one off ebay. If you don't need an intel one you can get PPC970 based Powermacs quite cheaply. Even intel ones are somewhat cheaper than retail.

Answer 10

There are basically three ways to get a discount on a Mac as mentioned in other posts the Mac Mini is the cheapest Mac but the white laptop may be the most convenient way to get a Mac.

1) Educational discount - you can just take an evening class and still qualify for this, usually about 5% off;

2) Refurb store - discounts can be up to 50% but you need to act quickly and be aware of suitable prices - this is available from the front end of the Apple.com website. My iMac came from here and didn't have a scratch on it and I got 18% off;

3) Ex-demo and old stock from resellers, particularly if they are moving or selling up, once got about 25% off an iPod on Christmas Eve and 40% off a laptop in a closing down sale - you have to wait for these though.

Personally I'd avoid buying on e-Bay - Macs attract scammers and you don't often see genuine bargains, plus laptops may be in a dubious state. I would sell on eBay though as Macs hold their value well. See my page for more details.

Answer 11

I did some development on the Mac Mini, which worked out well for me. It is eerily silent.

However that seems to be the consensus of this thread, my recommendation for your mini purchase would be to wait a few months. Macworld is coming in January and the rumor is they will be giving the mini a much needed update. The current model has been unchanged for about a year, it honestly isn't worth the money as it stands right now.

Some good sites to check on to see when apple is planning on refreshes, http://www.macrumors.com/ and http://www.appleinsider.com/.

Answer 12

• How cheap and old can I go to have an ok mac development machine?

Computers are so absurdly fast now anything made in the last 2-4 years will be more than usable. The current Mac Mini will be more than enough for most things - it may not be the "fastest", but it has a dual-core CPU, and you can fit at least 2GBs of RAM into it..

• Is there any other way to have a good dev machine for the platform without buying a mac and without doing illegal virtualization / dual booting of OSx86?

The cheapest (legal) way of running OS X is to borrow a machine.. Even if it's an old G4 iMac, you can still run XCode (and Leopard, if I'm not mistaken). It wont be the fastest, most pleasant experience, but it'll work.. Another alternative is to use a friends machine remotely, via SSH and/or VNC.

• Is virtualizing a real purchased OSX legal?

Both Parallels and VMWare Fusion can now legally (and easily) virtualise OS X Server, but only on OS X, so this will not be very useful to you..

Answer 13

While I am not a big mac fan, yes it is perfectly legal to run a virtual MacOSX(from what I understand)
EDIT: this statement is wrong apparently(see comments). Rest is golden though :)

virtualbox is an excellent virtual machine and its open source(free... a new concept to mac users).

I run this on linux(but other OSs are supported) and while it is slightly process hungry it does work perfectly, even in "seamless" mode where the windows on the virtual machine become integrated with my real machine desktop.

Answer 14

Definitely keep your eyes on the refurb section of the apple store. A MacBook, Mini, or base iMac would be my choice in your shoes.

Answer 15

One thing to keep in mind when buying from eBay is that if they have opened the Mac they have most likely voided the warrantee even if they have Apple Care. In fact they just wasted the Apple Care.

And if ANYTHING doesn't work, like the speaker, DO NOT BUY! It means the opened it and broke something.

You are often better off just buying a refurbished/clearance one from Apple because people have an unrealistic idea of what a used, warrantee voided computer is worth.

Oh and while you can run the iPhone SDK on the PowerPC Macs using some hacks it's not worth it to save a few dollars.

Answer 16

Since when does Apple decide what is legal and what is illegal? Judges are there for that reason Microsoft was convicted for a lot less by antitrust: if this ever enters a court, I'm sure Apple's bones will come out broken So, for what matters, you may have troubles using your mac os x on a PC and Apple won't help, but that doesn't mean they are right When this issue will be legally solved, I'm sure Apple will have to allow people to develop on different platform (Unix on top of all...)

Answer 17

i have successfully run my xcode installation on a vmware workstation installation for 6 months. although i must state it was painful as it was limited to 1024 and therefore i bought a mac mini and it runs sweet.

I strongly disagree with people saying you should buy more - if its only to do iphone dev and you use a pc for everything else its a waste of money getting a macbook etc.

I do have to add that it is sad that people still seem to make anti pc comments... its getting old guys

Answer 18

Would be nice if apple would run on newer hardware.. The imac is using 2 years out of date proccers and hate having to be stuck with monitor build on it.
I built my own and run mac os legally bought.. if mac would use newer hardware and let me do more upgrading then I would buy from them... Or better yet. since they are used off the self PC parts now. Just no test for the tpm would be good.

Answer 19

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