Could I find a MacBook for $400?

Here's a link;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834100125

It comes with leopard, but you should be able to upgrade to Lion/Mountain Lion despite it being an older model. It won't be a speed demon, but it should handle what you want. That's $430 + your $99/yr subscription + the cost of Mountain Lion. You can't download it from the App Store on leopard, so you'd have to work that out. Someone somewhere told me that you can buy Lion (so I would presume the same with Mountain Lion now) at the Apple Store and they will install it for you, since you won't have access to the app store. Otherwise you'd have to first upgrade to snow leopard, THEN upgrade to at least Lion to get the latest version of Xcode.

i doubt you will find any sort of recent mac for that cheap

Does it have to be a MacBook? I'm sure you could get much more for your money (in the way of power) with a Mac mini as they're only $600 new.

Hardware wise a Mac mini and a MacBook are pretty much the same. They both use the same notebook hardware

Mr. RPG said:

Are the mac minis that much better than the MacBooks?

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As the poster above said, the hardware is comparable - but they're quite a bit cheaper than the MacBook line. If you're buying used, you can probably get a more recent mini (meaning better specs) for around the same price as you'd spend on an older model MacBook. Just hunt around on eBay and/or craigslist to see what you can find.

Lunfai said:

The latest Xcode versions require Lion/Mountain Lion.

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Last I checked ML can be loaded hackintosh.

Diseal3 said:

Last I checked ML can be loaded hackintosh.

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As I understand it it can, but with the specific hardware needs of a ML hackintosh, a used Mac Mini might still be a cheaper, and better option.

el-John-o said:

As I understand it it can, but with the specific hardware needs of a ML hackintosh, a used Mac Mini might still be a cheaper, and better option.

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Maybe the needs are specific for now. However at least with a custom rig, when necessary you can have true windows gaming performance.

Diseal3 said:

Maybe the needs are specific for now. However at least with a custom rig, when necessary you can have true windows gaming performance.

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He says he's going to buy Snow Leopard DVD, and he's wants to stay legit.

Mr. RPG said:

Not at all, because it lasts an entire year.. And it pays for all of your downloads and everything else.

The $99 annual fee doesn't really concern me.

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With that logic, consider a Mac will last you a couple of years at least...that would be $200 a year (probably less since I bet it will last way longer than that). Also, you plan to use it to make money, so that should be factored in as well.

MisterKeeks said:

However, it isn't cheap, as you have to buy a licence to Snow Leopard Server.

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I do not necessarily agree that your interpretation that the EULA for Snow Leopard Server allows for its virtualization on non-Mac hardware.

However, I wanted to point out that copies of Snow Leopard Server are now selling on eBay for a cheap as $51 -- check it out.

I track this as I offer instruction on how to install Snow Leopard client in Parallels on modern Lion or Mt. Lion Macs for those who need continuing use of their PowerPC apps.

Yeah you can find one for $300 on ebay. I personally hate these old macbooks because they are so slow and really do not represent the Apple Macintosh computer very well. I would highly recommend you save up and purchase a Macbook Pro and not be like one of those white Macbook people.