Hi, i'm planning on buying an m1 iMac with 256gb storage, 8gb ram and the 7 core gpu. Will this configuration be enough for Xcode development, Create ML and swift playgrounds? Thanks in advance :)
is the base model M1 iMac enough?
256 GB storage is really not enough. IMO, you would need at least 512 GB or even 1 TB.
8GB RAM is small, but M1 has optimized RAM use, so it is probably less critical. But I would recommend 16 GB. Xcode is really hungry.
I don't see 8 core vs 7 as a must.
For the external SSD, check carefully: it is a bit tricky.
run xcode by itself to reduce ram usage
What do you mean ? run alone ? Take care, you will have Mail open, Safari or other running, may need to have faceTime during development to contact other partner, a Text Editor to prepare some doc, an image editor to draw or modify some image…
RAM use on M1 is much optimised, so maybe 8 GB are enough. But if you want to be future proof, 16GB is much better. And remember, on M1, RAM cannot be increased, it is built in the chip.