Basic Mac for iPhone app dev.?

mrmac

I'm looking for a basic Mac to use for iPhone / iPad app development, but as I've never even switched on a Mac before, I haven't a clue what to look for (or avoid), and what kind of money I should pay.

I'm a 1st year Applied Computing student, so my learning curve is huge, but my budget is miserable! (€200ish)

Any advice and tips on what to get, will be greatly appreciated, and please feel free to use small words, as I confuse easily!!

TIA

edit: Would this kind of desktop be ok? http://adverts.ie/341802

Willbbz

I think that doesnt have an intel processor, instead a powerpc one
You'll need an intel processor to install the latest release of snow leopard 10.6.x
Just enables you for the latest software development kit that apple release as some aren't compatible with 10.5.x or lower

mrmac

Thanks WilliamOC, that's exactly the kind of info I was hoping for.

mrmac

How about a 13" MacBook, 2ghz Intel Core Duo, 1gb Ram, in Sligo, willing to take €250?

http://adverts.ie/341271

Would something like that do the trick?
I take it I can always hook these up to an external monitor?

conor.hogan.2

ye that will do perfectly - i would buy a gig or two more ram from crucial and upgrade to snow leopard and then happy days (well install xcode for development etc but ye)

Willbbz

I was just looking at that
It has an intel processor and 1gb ram so it fits the req. for 10.6.x but it's on tiger OS. Apple reccomend people update to 10.6.x from 10.5 and this is on 10.4
I've read of people getting it to work sometimes but It's worth doing a bit of googling beforehand
If 200 is your budget you could always try your hand at a hacintosh but imo that MacBook seems like a good deal

brianhickey

WilliamOC wrote: »

I was just looking at that
It has an intel processor and 1gb ram so it fits the req. for 10.6.x but it's on tiger OS. Apple reccomend people update to 10.6.x from 10.5 and this is on 10.4
I've read of people getting it to work sometimes but It's worth doing a bit of googling beforehand
If 200 is your budget you could always try your hand at a hacintosh but imo that MacBook seems like a good deal

You can upgrade directly from Tiger to Snow Leopard no problem. Officially you are supposed to pay more but the SL disc does it fine.

Any Macbook with a Core 2 Duo will do fine, and yep RAM and hard disk upgrades are easy to do so don't worry about them.

mrmac

Really do appreciate all the help folks.
Really can't afford to buy something that won't fit the bill, so have to be very careful.

As for the Snow Leopard OS, is it really only €29?

Decided to make an offer of €250 on that Macbook. 3rd in line, so slim chance of getting it, but you never know.

Hobbes

If you already have a monitor/keyboard/mouse then you can buy a Mac Mini. That will also be more then enough for development. Spec tends to be a little better for the price.

Willbbz

Yeah pretty much only 29 euro and well worth the increased performance. I had 10.4.x on an iMac G5 a few months ago and it's very frustrating downloading software that's not compatible with it so upgrade if you get the chance
Good luck with getting the mb . I managed to pull myself an alright macbook pro from adverts for 250 but is subsequently in the swap section atm