Best time to buy a new iMac

[Chad Armstrong]

I've been waiting for a number of months to get a new iMac. Optimally, I wanted to save the most money by waiting for the latest model, plus getting iLife '08 and Mac OS 10.5 Leopard.

However, I'm caught in a small bind. Since I do development work, I try to have a variety of test systems, dating as far back as Mac OS 10.1. I have Mac OS 10.4 on a PowerPC Mac, but not an Intel Mac yet. Unfortunately, the retail copies of Mac OS 10.4 are only available for PowerPC Macs, and not for Intel-based Macs, since all of the Intel-based Macs have come out during the Tiger timeframe.

Would it be a good idea to get a new iMac (preloaded with Tiger) right now and then get Leopard when it comes out (and create a dual-boot), or is there so little difference between the PPC and Intel versions of Tiger that I shouldn't worry too much?

At this point, I haven't noticed any real problems occurring from the Intel/UB versions of my applications, but I don't want to be caught by unexpected surprises and not having a proper test platform for both Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5 on Intel.

Regards,

Chad