What is the cheapest Mac computer just for building iOS builds?

Hi,

I don't know anything about apple computers and laptops, I never had one.

Now I'd like to create an iOS build of my game and they say there is no way to do it without a macbook or some other kind of apple computer.

Please advise what would be the cheapest used apple computer model that would be capable of building iOS builds now and for a couple more years.

I don't need it for anything else, just for building iOS builds and my games are small sized.

Thanks.

 

Get a Mac Mini - it's what I use. Be prepared for an exceptionally slow computer, though, that you literally can't use for anything other than assembling builds (even switching between windows and surfing the net comes with 5-10s lag spikes).

 

Sounds terrible - I saw Mac Mini's are still recommended in today's era.. are they still that slow with loading?

 

We bought the cheapest brand new one in December 2019 and it's terrible. It came with only 128GB of storage, which it quickly filled up by doing literally nothing other than building a single small Unity project. When the entire system didn't get a BSOD while building, that is.

Buying a used macbook right now is gamble, since there's no telling how long they'll be supported after Apple completes the transition from Intel to Arm.

Our previous mac mini from 2011, which was making iOS builds just fine, became a doorstopper shortly after MacOS Mojave came out. Apple dropped support for OpenGL from the OS, an opportunity they seized to make many older Macs obsolete by not providing Metal drivers for their GPUs. They moved in for the kill by having the latest XCode require Mojave (and not requiring the latest XCode to use the latest iOS SDK) just a few months later. I bet they had a small surge in Mac sales due to studios suddenly being forced to upgrade their iOS build machines that year, the bastards.

Anyway, what happened then could very well happen again in two or so years. Apple will eventually release an Arm-only MacOS, the new XCode will not run on older versions, only the new XCode will be able to target the latest iOS, your thousand dollar machine becomes neutered for development.

My suggestion is: if you cannot afford the Arm mac mini, look for services where you can rent a Mac VM on the cloud.

 

Unity Cloud Build might be an option for you https://unity3d.com/unity/features/cloud-build

 

I bought a 2014 Mac mini from ebay for $400 and it does the job just fine. 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD. Currently running Big Sur and Xcode 12.

 

You can get a mac mini, if it has HDD it will be terribly slow, like few seconds just to open a window, you basically can't do anything on it.

But you can buy Nvme SSD and adapter, install it, disconnect HDD (important) and you will get a decent and fast computer. We develop games for mobile and I see almost no difference in comparison with i7-8700, 16GB, 280x specs PC.

 

It would if you would ever actually make it avaible for pro memebership which your site states is included. BUT IS NOT!

 

It is available with Unity Teams Advanced https://unity.com/features/cloud-build

 

OK so I have PRO and DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO CLOUD BUILD!
I went ahead and Clicked on the "TRY TEAMS ADVANCED FOR 30 DAYS" Now it wants to bill me an EXTRA $9 a month, ON TOP of the PRO which I show I already have. The details page says I should already have it.






It's also like I haven't sent messages to support for the last YEAR! And get NOTHING in reply.

 

@EvalDaemon I see your point. Do you have your support ticket number by chance? Also, if you could provide your email in a private message on here we can check. I checked with the team here, and you indeed should already have access to Cloud Build but requires a separate activation (not via the 30 day trial). Once we have your email, I can follow up separately to get this working for you. Sorry for the confusion