<p>I'm going to be working on some iPhone apps so I've been given a golden ticket to buy a Mac. However the golden ticket isn't worth that much, and I'm thinking iMac. Now, Macs are great, I love 'em and use 'em at home, but I know that the iMac is geared more towards the average consumer than the professional. Is an iMac going to be powerful enough to do iPhone development on?</p>

<p>If it helps any, the only thing I envision doing on the Mac is running XCode and maybe a web browser.</p>

<p>Is there anybody out there doing iPhone development and having trouble running the required tools on their machine? If so, what do you have?</p>

[{'answer_id': 22475, 'author': 'gbc', 'author_id': 1667, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1667', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I run XCode on a 17" iMac (2 yrs old) with 2GB of RAM and haven\'t had any trouble.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 22481, 'author': 'Brian Warshaw', 'author_id': 1344, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1344', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I run XCode for Mac development on a 20" current-gen iMac and it works perfectly with plenty of other processes running. You can definitely use the iMac to develop software.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 22482, 'author': 'Kevin Chan', 'author_id': 1877, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1877', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>The iMac is a very fast machine and will be more than suitable for iPhone development. In most cases, a Mac Mini with maxed out ram is good enough.</p>\n\n<p>Keep in mind that out of the box, the Mac Mini can only accommodate one monitor.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 22485, 'author': 'John Topley', 'author_id': 1450, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1450', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>An iMac is easily powerful enough to use for development work.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 22588, 'author': 'TheSmurf', 'author_id': 1975282, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1975282', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>My main Mac is a MacBook, juiced with 4GB of RAM, and I find that perfectly good for development (in either Windows or OSX). I could have got an iMac for a bit more money, but I already had a 20" LCD monitor laying around, and I wanted the portability.</p>\n\n<p>The MacBooks are as powerful as the iMacs (excluding the graphics card, which may or may not be important to you; it wasn\'t to me), and are perfectly suitable for development.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 22591, 'author': 'btw', 'author_id': 2293, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2293', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I run XCode on a current-gen Macbook with only ONE GB of RAM and it runs fine, so long as I limit the amount of total applications running.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 22622, 'author': 'crashmstr', 'author_id': 1441, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1441', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I\'d say that any of the current iMac models are more that good enough for development with their dual core, 6MB cache, 1066MHz FSB cpus. You might consider going with more than 1GB of ram, but compare aftermarket prices at places like <a href="http://www.newegg.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NewEgg</a> to what Apple wants (for example, I upgraded my MacBook Pro to 4GB for hundreds less than getting installed from Apple).</p>\n\n<p>Which model you picked would be more about HD and LCD size and how much you have to spend.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 22638, 'author': 'Stephen Cox', 'author_id': 534, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/534', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>You aren't gonna have a problem running Xcode on an iMac. Any iMac. Any development project can be done on an iMac. They're fast and modern machines. The cheapest iMac has a Dual Core Duo 2 chip with 1 gig RAM. Boost the RAM to 2 if you can (a cheap option - cheaper if you buy 3rd party RAM). Makes a huge difference running OSX.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 27771, 'author': 'Stephen Darlington', 'author_id': 2998, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2998', 'pm_score': 6, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p>Any modern Mac will be fine. I work on a two year old MacBook (2GHz) with 2Gb of memory and its perfectly usable. The biggest constraint I find it screen real-estate. I am <em>way</em> more productive on my 22" external screen. Go big if you get an iMac or consider adding an external monitor to the base model.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 43902, 'author': 'Dave Verwer', 'author_id': 4496, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/4496', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>As with all development, screen size is paramount so I would suggest the 24" iMac if your golden ticket stretches that far or a mac mini with a large (probably non-Apple) monitor if it doesn\'t.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 63319, 'author': 'Community', 'author_id': -1, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>In terms of power, any current Mac is fine for iPhone development. You might want to consider other factors that depend on how you like to work. </p>\n\n<p>Do you like to sometimes grab the machine and just get in a different work environment (or show your stuff to people)? The MacBooks are comparable power-wise, but give you that freedom.</p>\n\n<p>Can you work with glossy screens, or do they irritate you? In the latter case, an iMac or MacBook may be suboptimal and you should make sure that you get a larger, non-glossy display as main screen. A second display is generally very helpful for development, so you might want to have one anyway.</p>\n\n<p>And you will indeed want to push RAM to at least 2GB (4GB are nice of course, but not absolutely necessary).</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 102330, 'author': 'Vihung', 'author_id': 15452, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/15452', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I would suggest going for a maxed out Mac Mini and the best monitor you can fit in your budget.</p>\n\n<p>Bear in mind that both the iMac and the Mac Mini are essentially laptops (in terms of their internal components). Admittedly, the iMac has a large screen (as laptops go) and a proper hard drive. </p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 104602, 'author': 'craigb', 'author_id': 18590, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/18590', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>I'm managing just fine on a Mac mini. It only has the stock 1GB RAM at the moment so thats the current bottleneck.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 330864, 'author': 'alimack', 'author_id': 39447, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/39447', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>Developing for the iPhone isn't particularly intensive work, the only way to go up from an iMac is the Mac Pro, which I assume you  can't afford.  The only reason to go up up to a Mac Pro is if you're doing video or image work where you really need the horsepower.</p>\n\n<p>I saw a chart in MacFormat this month that suggested the base iMac was faster than the base Mac Pro anyway, although obviously there's more room for expansion in the Pro.</p>\n\n<p>Buy more RAM, though, up it to 4Gb you won't regret it.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 332539, 'author': 'Matt Gallagher', 'author_id': 36103, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/36103', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I often use my PowerMac G5. Sure, you need to hack the developer tools to install on a PPC and there are some Device SDK issues but it runs.</p>\n\n<p>Oh wait, you said "good". Nevermind.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 3273356, 'author': 'MadProfit', 'author_id': 392463, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/392463', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>The only other comment I have is that sometimes I wish I had the portable so I could code on the train, plane or sitting in the park!</p>\n\n<p>I bought an iMac and have had no problems whatsoever developing my 'simple' app except for the scrolling thingee freezing on me sometimes.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 3750281, 'author': 'Leniel Maccaferri', 'author_id': 114029, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/114029', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I\'ve bought the mid 2010 Unibody Mac mini and it\'s a good machine to do iPhone development.</p>\n\n<p>I didn\'t want to spend a lot of money buying a new computer. So I opted for the bare minimum necessary to develop for iPhone.</p>\n\n<p>The post bellow shows my impressions about it...</p>\n\n<p><a href="http://www.leniel.net/2010/09/developing-for-iphone-with-mac-mini.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Learning to develop for iPhone with a Mac mini</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 4957146, 'author': 'testing', 'author_id': 426227, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/426227', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I\'m also thinking of buying an Mac. I wanted to create a new question, but now I\'m trying to ask with this \'answer\'. There are a few possibilities:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>iMac: Powerful hardware, large screen (27") -> perfect for development</li>\n<li>MacBook Pro: portable, but you need a bigger screen than 13" -> expensive</li>\n<li>Mac mini: small, no noise, as powerfull as the 13" MacBook Pro, cheap, you need an external display and a RAM upgrade</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I have worked for a few months on a 13" MacBook Pro, but you really need a second screen if you want to develop (despite through the touchpad scrolling is very easy). The hardware (2.66 Core2Duo, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB) was strong enough for the development with Xcode.</p>\n\n<p>But how often do you really need a portable solution? The most of the time I was working on the same place. And a 27" iMac would be great for that, but isn\'t as cheap as a Mac mini. You could buy a Mac Mini with three 23" IPS panels (1080p) for the same money (including Matrox DualHead2Go) but not as powerfull as the 27" iMac with i5-680.</p>\n\n<p>Questions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Is portability for you essential or a nice-to-have?</li>\n<li>What is better for Xcode? More GHz or more cores?</li>\n<li>What brings a faster experience? A faster CPU (e.g. 400 MHz faster) or a SSD instead?</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The best solution would be an iMac and a MacBook I think. But for the beginning it\'s too much money.</p>\n\n<p>PS: you also need one device too. The cheapest device is a 8GB iPod Touch 4G.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 7324536, 'author': 'Kenneth Anguish', 'author_id': 668318, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/668318', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Please get a Mac that has SSD, either the MacBook Air, or the built-to-order options.</p>\n\n<p>Compiling big frameworks such as Three20 would be at least 2 to 3 times faster. XCode 4 should open a lot faster with SSD drive.</p>\n'}]
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/22469', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/543/']