[smtddr]

Let me just drop this link: http://macincloud.com/ ...you could totally use the iOS simulator, or compile the .ipa(iOS app binary) and send it to yourself via testflight or even faster, on a jailbroken device, just FTP/scp/whatever the .ipa to your physical location and install it on your device. But yeah, other than this cloud solution I completely agree on the price-of-entry point. Considering the salaries we're getting these days, allocating $1,000 for an iOS device and a macmini doesn't seem unreasonable. Around $1,600 if you need a macbook. That's how Apple rolls. Take it or leave it. If you're just wanting to learn to hack around with things, or just can't afford Apple hardware right now, then sure... hack around with OSX on non-Apple hardware. But if you're a professional paid engineer and serious about app development, dealing with this hack'ish OSX environment is a waste of time. Just by a macmini or sign up with macincloud. Spend your time developing your app, not pulling your hair out on whatever brokeness of OSX-on-NonApple-hardware you'll encounter.

[asnyder]

The new mac minis (Late 2014) are terrible (google and see), and are not useable for anything other than web browsing. I recently had to dump this new mac mini and switch to a Macbook Pro for mac/iOS dev as they severely underpowered and limited entry level mac-minis, not to mention the craziness of soldering the ram (when form factor isn't an issue, compare to previous models), making basic upgrades impossible.

In conclusion, running Yosemite on VMs, especially AMD is really hard, and not worth it in the long run. Buy a mac instead, but AVOID the latest mac minis and get some other non-crippled model.