Mac mini for iOS development

[zshguru]

With yesterday's announcements of replacements (upgrade doesn't seem the right word to use) I'm in a bit of a pickle. I need a mac for ios development as it's what I do for a living and I don't have one at home.

For strictly iOS development and literally nothing else which would be the better machine? A 2.3/2.6 quad i7 from 2012 or the newer 3.0 i7 from yesterday? Assume both would have 16gb ram and ssd.

For around $1400 I can get a late 2012 model and max it out. I'd basically max out the current mini at the apple store for close to the same cost assuming I can't DIY upgrade the memory and storage. If I can DIY it I certainly would prefer.

I've also been considering building a hackintosh as well. I know the 2012 model maxed out is a little beast of a dev station as it's what I use at work. I just don't want to get ripped off by the Apple tax.

I haven't seen any official benchmarks so maybe the right answer is to wait until we have actual benchmarks. The differences might not be that great when you factor in the newer hardware containing some (hopefully) improvements. Nor have I heard anything remotely official about how much is upgradeable but I wouldn't be shocked if everything was soldered on.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

* I say nothing else as I have a beast of a windows gaming machine for the other stuff I do. I specifically don't want an imac b/c I don't have desk space for another monitor.

 

[grandM]

With yesterday's announcements of replacements (upgrade doesn't seem the right word to use) I'm in a bit of a pickle. I need a mac for ios development as it's what I do for a living and I don't have one at home.

For strictly iOS development and literally nothing else which would be the better machine? A 2.3/2.6 quad i7 from 2012 or the newer 3.0 i7 from yesterday? Assume both would have 16gb ram and ssd.

For around $1400 I can get a late 2012 model and max it out. I'd basically max out the current mini at the apple store for close to the same cost assuming I can't DIY upgrade the memory and storage. If I can DIY it I certainly would prefer.

I've also been considering building a hackintosh as well. I know the 2012 model maxed out is a little beast of a dev station as it's what I use at work. I just don't want to get ripped off by the Apple tax.

I haven't seen any official benchmarks so maybe the right answer is to wait until we have actual benchmarks. The differences might not be that great when you factor in the newer hardware containing some (hopefully) improvements. Nor have I heard anything remotely official about how much is upgradeable but I wouldn't be shocked if everything was soldered on.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

* I say nothing else as I have a beast of a windows gaming machine for the other stuff I do. I specifically don't want an imac b/c I don't have desk space for another monitor.

In my opinion a quad core benefices programming. It is one of the few areas multicore really seems advised. So be fast

 

[macdragonfl]

Upgrade it yourself

I bought a i7 2012 Mac Mini 3 months ago put 16gb crucial memory and a crucial ssd but used a usb3 external enclosure. This way I use internal drive as back up and store video collection on it. I do not void the warranty by replacing in hdd inside. It's a little beast! And then used a asus qhd 27" monitor and was under $1400.00 including monitor. I went with this because I thought the replacement mini would be a non upgradable and a new form factor. I was quite surprised Apple discontinued I7 quad. I am so glad now I did this configuration.

 

[zshguru]

I picked up a 2.3 quad on the way home from work and plan to upgrade to a ssd and upgrade the ram. I'll keep the original drive and put it in an external enclosure. Nice little beast for the money.

TY all.

 

[con19m31]

Good decision. Excellent for xCode development with SSD and 16 GB RAM.