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Ask HN: Can you do IOS/XCode development on Mac Mini (1.4 Ghz)

8 points by neilxdsouza ↗ HN
Need advice on whether you can do IOS Dev on a Mini the 1.4 Ghz (2 core i5). Im from india and you can get this machine here (on Amazon.in) for INR 32K (about USD 500). There is a higher spec'd mini at 2.5 Ghz That costs about INR 50K (about USD 800), but I'm trying to see how far I could get with the cheapest model.

Does anyone use this machine for development?

My initial plan was to buy the 15 inch MBP (Iris graphics) which you can get here (amazon.in) for INR 120K (about USD 2000). But, after re-thinking, my girlfriend is into fashion and I'm planning to get her an innovis 1500 embroidery cum sewing machine and am cutting down on my specs a little - a little bet I'm taking on her.

The idea is to buy the 1.4 Ghz mini for INR 32K and put 16 Gb ram into - I checked on amazon.in - you can get a corsair chip for about INR 7300 - 16 Gb will cost me about INR 15K (about USD 250).

So to summarize, if I bought an mac mini (1.4 Ghz) and put 16Gb ram into, would I be able to do IOS development work on it or would it be a frustrating exercise.

  For those who want to compare the savings:

  (All prices in INR)
  Mac - mini     - 32,000
  16 Gb ram      - 14,000
  Full hd screen -  8,000
  ----------------------
  Total           54,000 

  MBP 15 inch   - 120,000 
 
  Difference = 120K - 54K = 66K INR (about USD 1000)

 Thanks, do let me know your experience/opinions.

16 comments

[ 34.1 ms ] story [ 1213 ms ] thread
daven11
I use a macbook air mid 2011. 1.7 Ghz i5, 4GB 133MHz DDR3, 128GB SSD, intel HD graphics 3000 384 MB memory, and it works fine. I run Yosemite on it and develop iOS apps. I actually run a Windows 8 VM on it as well - but I have to be careful with the memory usage :-). I keep looking for an excuse to upgrade it but I have no reason :-(

If you buy from Apple you can return it in 14 days no questions asked - at least in Australia last time I looked. I tried this once with an external hard drive (too noisy) and it was not a problem.

neilxdsouza
What you seem to suggest is that there is no need to even upgrade the RAM.

I could check how well it works for a while before spending the extra on the RAM.

Thanks.

daven11
I'd get 8GB, I do have trouble now and then with the 4GB, but only because of the VM (I have to reboot), 8GB will give you a longer lifetime I think (I didn't think you could upgrade the RAM in the mini's any more).
neilxdsouza
If you read the tech specs as below, http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/

In the memory section, it says it's upgradeable.

And I think this is a link from Apple's own instructions on how to do the upgrade.

https://support.apple.com/en-is/HT4432

neilxdsouza
Yes. I just saw that. I cant reply to your comment directly as there is no reply button below your comment (probably nested too deep). stackexchange might be a good place to check. I think the 2012 mac mini was eating into their higher end machine sales and crippling the 2014 mac mini is move on their part to counter this.
daven11
oh, I just had a look and the base model doesn't have an SSD - I'd really not consider developing without an SSD any more. It will work but compile times are slower, how much I couldn't say. But then I've developed for years without an SSD before that so...

( the reply link appears after a few minutes)

neilxdsouza
That's why I thought of 16Gb Ram. I'm thinking, The whole of XCode and the compiler and my program source would be in the buffer cache. So after the initial loading from disk, the dev experience would be quite smooth (that's the guess I'm making).
daven11
Indeed, and you could do the old trick of making a ram disk for your compiles
Ezhik
I think it'll work pretty well, unless you are working on really big projects.

RAM is something that will never hurt to have more of.

__Joker
I work with 128 GB SSD + 8 GB RAM. I think less RAM is fine, if you have SSD. The swaps, if there is any swaps, will be faster.

Between verify, whether the RAM is upgradable or not.

equalarrow
Um..., swaps?!?

This would immediately tell me that I need to get more RAM.

For those wondering, I run the following comfortably in 16GB of RAM with SSD:

Postgres 9.x Ruby 2.x Rails 4.x Python 2.7 / Flask XCode 6.1.1 Chrome Safari Whatever else apps...

I don't think I would trust this in 8GB and feel like I'm productive. Remember, RAM is 10kX-100kX faster than hd, so you can never have enough.

__Joker
Obviously each has their requirement. For my workload, I get away with 8 GB RAM. Where I run eclipse( 740 MB ) RAM, sbt with 2 GB RAM, and chrome. And environment is more than snappy enough for me.

At the end of the day, each to his own.

tiboll
I would suggest an SSD (or Fusion Drive) and at least 8gb of memory (that's pretty much what I have on the Air).

If you take theses 2 options on the 1.4Ghz you're already over the price of the middle range which have a better processor and a better graphic card.

neilxdsouza
I've found a dealer who has a late-2012 mac mini display piece. This particular machine can be upgraded to 16Gb. Im probably going to go with this config.
tiboll
The SSD is still a good option with Xcode and Mac OS X. I can't imagine working on a HDD machine ever again.