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I am a mobile developer. I have some expertise in Android development, and now I wish to start developing for the iPhone \ iPad. I plan to be using xcode for iOS 5.

I found this deal on a second-hand shop:

  • iMac - 17"
  • Processor - Core 2 \ 2 GHZ
  • RAM - 2 GB
  • hard disk - 320 GB

Price : 485$

What do you think? Is it worth it?

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  • I'm not an expert at second-hand shopping, but I'd definitely bump memory to at least 4GB.
    – Eimantas
    Jan 29, 2012 at 12:24
  • For development purposes, I'd say you'd want a larger screen, and definitely more RAM, but you'd want to look at the age of the machine since if it is an early iMac, its at the bottom end of the Lion spec range.
    – Stu Wilson
    Jan 29, 2012 at 12:31
  • This question appears to be off-topic because it is about hardware shopping.
    – bmike ♦
    Jun 23, 2014 at 0:02

2 Answers 2

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If you're developing for iOS, you are going to want a more recent machine than that - the 17" iMac dates back past snow leopard and possibly even leopard itself, which you are going to need to run Xcode.

Also, as mentioned above, a 17" screen is likely too small for iOS development to be comfortable - I use a 24" and even then sometimes it's cramped.

Last but not least, to me $500 for long outdated hardware is a lot of cash. Second hand stores are rarely amazingly good deals - they buy cheap and hike up for their own profit. If you are going to go down the second hand route I'd definitely advise going to a private seller (of some level of trust).

If I were you I'd put the bucks into a brand new machine and recover the cost with the app sales, as a new machine will last longer, perform better and definitely accept all the software you need.

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it would be a wise choice to get a recent mac mini for your $500.00

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