Cheap iPhone dev mac in the UK?

[codemonkey]

Hello all, first post here and I'm looking for a little advice

I'm based in the UK and I'm looking for a sub £500 mac that will run the iPhone SDK. I've tried setting up OSX on my laptop, but could not get it running due to hardware incompatibilities, and it runs *very* slowly in a virtual machine.
I have found a iMac G5 that comes with OSX 10.5 installed, will this be suitable for developing coco touch?
Are there any other sub-£500 macs I can get in the UK that would be more suitable?

Thanks in advance!

 

[chas_m]

A brand spanking new Mac Mini is available directly from Apple for £510, so therefore a refurb one should be quite a bit less expensive, meeting your requirements.

I *believe* the iMac G5 may also be suitable, but really if at all possible you want to go with an Intel Mac for ongoing iPhone and Mac development. I should think finding something Intel-based and sub-£500 should be quite doable.

 

[codemonkey]

That's great advice thanks, I've found some refurbished and used Intel based Mac Mini. One question though, will I have to buy a compatible monitor or will standard VGA or DVI monitors work with the Mini?

 

[chas_m]

Standard monitors (and keyboards, though I strongly suggest using an Apple keyboard) will work fine.

 

[Jamie-Jamie]

Mac mini ships in the box with a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adaptor. You can use any ol' DVI to VGA dongle. You can get some other adaptors from Apple if you want.

 

[bobtomay]

Mac mini ships in the box with a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adaptor. You can use any ol' DVI to VGA dongle. You can get some other adaptors from Apple if you want.

Sorry, but you cannot use any ol' DVI to VGA dongle coming out of the mini displayport to DVI adapter as that adapter is DVI-D only. There is no analog signal there. If you get a Mac that has the mini displayport and want VGA, it will require the mini displayport to VGA adapter.

 

[codemonkey]

Thanks bob, I'll bear that in mind when purchasing. Looks like I'll be getting a mac mini from ebay sometime in the next week or two

 

[Rottie]

If I were you, I'd just save the £510 and get a shiny, new Mini.
In my experience, eBay tend to be very over priced, considering what you get for your money.
Plus, if you get a Mini off of eBay, it is very much a case of buyer beware, especially if you're buying from a private individual, as you will almost certainly receive (i) NO warranty and (ii) NO backup/restore disks.

Just my 0.02

 

[chscag]

To codemonkey:

Very good advice from Rottie. Don't overlook it.

Regards.

 

[Rottie]

Very good advice from Rottie. Don't overlook it.

Thanks chscag,
The check's in the mail