What is the best amount of memory to have on a mac mini if im just going to use it to run xcode?

I use a Mac Mini which had 2GB ram which should be enough but for best performance I upgraded it to 8GB ram only cost me £40 as I used a none apple brand of ram. Which mini do you have, icore 5 or 7?

Thank you.I dont have one at the moment.Im currently looking online.

That depends. If you're just planning on using Xcode and the iOS Simulator at any given time and nothing else? Then not much - 1GB would do the job I'm sure. If you're like me and have Xcode, iOS simulator, Eclipse, Android Emulator, Safari, Photoshop, Filezilla, and random other programs open ... better plan on 8 or 16 gb of ram. On macs up to Mountain Lion you could open up Activity Monitor and check the "Page Outs" property. If it had a positive number on a regular basis it indicated you needed more memory. With Mavericks a similar metric is "Swap Used", although you can open Terminal and type "vm_stat" to get the page outs. Not sure if it correlates 1:1 on the page-outs to Mountain Lion or not, but either way if you consistently see high numbers on both metrics you should look at increasing RAM.

I put 16 gigs in mine, but really dont notice a difference from 8gigs.

Yeah, you won't, unless you're constantly using more than 8gb at any given time. I sometimes will go over 8gb if I'm running a lot of apps at once. But for most people, 8gb is probably more than enough.

8GB should do the trick. But I recommend not buying the RAM from Apple. I have 12GB, but I have rarely gone below 4GB free, meaning that 8GB would be perfect.

You WILL use you mac for more than just Xcode. This computer will replace anything you have, for everything you do. The simple reason is that it is just one of the best computers out there. The standard is 4GB. You could try this, and then upgrade later if you want to if it feels a little slow.

Cool yes I just spent a lot on a pc this year.Im glad yall brought that up, because I want to sell it and replace it with a mac.It would be better than using two different computers.

hi. have the same problem :) work on PC but now looking for MAC. and have no idea what to choose. mac mini, IMAC, or other apple :) today more think about IMAC. looking for the BLACKFRIDAY deal on official store - even 50 0r 100 USD discount will be good :)

I was in the same boat as you about a year ago... was a die hard PC user... used to turn up my nose at mac thinking it was just for people heavy into video editing or graphic design... when I needed one for Xcode, I first started by converting one of my old netbooks into a hackintosh. Then, ended up getting a used 2006 macbook pro for $200... Mac finally grew on me to the point that I no longer wanted to use a PC at all, so I finally bit the bullet and sold all 3 of my PC's to buy one fully loaded 2012 Macbook Pro with every possible upgrade. Loved it so much, I ended up selling that one for an 11" Macbook Air, with every possible upgrade, including solid state hard drive (I prefer the thinness and 11" screen over the heavier macbook pro with 15" screen that I had). I've never looked back, and cringe everytime I have to use a Windows PC for anything now. I digress... I used a Mac Mini at work primarily for Xcode with 2GB... it was a bit slow, but it worked. My 2006 Macbook Pro had 4GB, which was much better, and didn't lag at all. My current Macbook Air has 8GB (the only downfall of the Macbook Air... the most RAM you can get is 8GB... and it's soldered onto the motherboard), and is enough to use Xcode, Photoshop, XBMC as a home media server, and anything else I want to run, all at the same time with no issues whatsoever.

If you end up looking at some of the older Mac mini's, make sure you get one that supports the latest Mac OS X, and that has an Intel proc instead of the PPC proc. If it's not capable of supporting Mavericks (or at the very least Mountain Lion), you won't be able to get the latest version of Xcode. Mark

Just a little memo... I have been using the magic mouse for years, until two weeks ago, when i dished out the £60 to get the Magic Trackpad. I must say that I will always look back at those Mouse years with shame! Although I do not have a MacBook [air/pro], or anything with a trackpad, it completely transformed my iMac. If anyone gets the choice between trackpad or mouse, I would recommend the trackpad. It's much more fluent, and it recognisable. The gestures are natural, instead of having to learn them. It's very similar to the iPad. It's only a short little note, but that's what I would recommend getting, because if you buy it new, you get a choice.

3 & 4-finger gestures definitely come in handy. But, when I go to the office, I always immediately plugin my MacBook Pro into the external monitor and start using the wireless mouse and keyboard, rather than touch the trackpad on my laptop. There's just something about a mouse that makes it much quicker and more efficient for me still :)