Virtualizing OS X vs buying a Mac machine

[damnated]

Hello, this might look strange at first, but allow me to explain.

In the not so distant future, I will be doing some Iphone development, and for that, unfortunately, I need a Mac environment. I'm currently starting my last year at university, and I will be doing some part time work, for how long, I don't know. If things work out well, I could get hired full-time.

My budget is quite limited, being a student and everything, but I could push it to, let's say, 450 euros. For this price, I could get a used 20" iMac ( from 2008 ) with modest specs or a PC with intel i7 cpu and plenty of ram, which, in theory, is more than capable of virtualization.

Now, I've never seen, in real life, a virtualized OS X, therefore I have no idea how fast it is. On the other hand, since I need the Mac environment just for development, I wouldn't have any other use for the iMac.

Please nudge me in one direction, because as I see it, both have up and downsides, but I can't really decide.

PS: I know that Apple doesn't allow the installation of OS X on non-Apple machines, however, I've read that people who virtualized OS X had no problem getting their apps signed and added to the appstore, because at the end of the day, they were using Xcode to develop.

[TheSuperSteve]

Sorry if i didnt understand the thread too well (Sleep deprived and studying hard for a college entrance exam.).

But if you can afford a used iMac, why not go even cheaper and get a Mac Mini? As far as i know, that should enough for iPhone development purposes.

I would tell you my experiences virtualizing OS X but i'm not exactly sure if that's against forum rules. But i can tell you one thing. It was slow as heck. But my computer isnt the best (4GB of ram, AMD Athlon II x4 640 CPU, ATI HD 4200 GPU).

But i do recommend buying a Mac for sure. Either an iMac or a Mac mini should be good enough. Since you're a student, you should look into getting a Student discount from Apple's website if you can. But i'm not sure if offer extends to their refurbished models.

[damnated]

I would tell you my experiences virtualizing OS X but i'm not exactly sure if that's against forum rules. But i can tell you one thing. It was slow as heck. But my computer isnt the best (4GB of ram, AMD Athlon II x4 640 CPU, ATI HD 4200 GPU).

I know how to set up a virtual Mac OS X, I'm definitely not asking for help in that area :)
Also, from what I've read, OS X needs an Intel processor, so it's kind of weird that you got it working with an AMD.

[DirtyPC]

I would suggest Quad core minimum, when virtualising a os you can choose what cores you want it to use. Ubuntu never really uses more than 2 cores on the simple stuff. I'd also suggest 6gb of ram, and assign 2gb's to your vOS. As with the above post you'll want a decent gpu as your running to os' effectively which means it'll use a lot of processing power, which also means having a decent psu (maybe 500w). You can run a virtual OS with lower specs but I recommend these to use it effectively. -On the other hand, go and fetch yourself a copy of Macintosh, and there are.. 'ways' of making it native on your system. But don't expect to find help on that subject here.

[KiwiNZ]

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