Wait for Snow Leopard or Buy Now?

[digicision]

Hi all:

I've been following the forums for some time now, and am planning to buy my first iMac. Like some of you, I was waiting since last fall for the updates that never happened until recently... and now I'm wondering whether I should wait longer for Snow Leopard to come out.

I actually don't mind paying the extra $100-$200 to upgrade later if I decide to buy now. I don't really need to buy now either, although of course it would be nice to play with it sooner rather than later. What would really bug me though is if Apple decided to upgrade some of the hardware on the high-end iMacs at the same time they pre-install Snow Leopard... If there's a good chance that they may change something on the hardware side, I'd probably want to wait.

Does anybody have any idea whether Apple would update some of the hardware specs when Snow Leopard or comes out, or is it more likely that they'd keep the specs the same but just change the O/S?

 

[MrENGLISH]

Hi all:

I've been following the forums for some time now, and am planning to buy my first iMac. Like some of you, I was waiting since last fall for the updates that never happened until recently... and now I'm wondering whether I should wait longer for Snow Leopard to come out.

I actually don't mind paying the extra $100-$200 to upgrade later if I decide to buy now. I don't really need to buy now either, although of course it would be nice to play with it sooner rather than later. What would really bug me though is if Apple decided to upgrade some of the hardware on the high-end iMacs at the same time they pre-install Snow Leopard... If there's a good chance that they may change something on the hardware side, I'd probably want to wait.

Does anybody have any idea whether Apple would update some of the hardware specs when Snow Leopard or comes out, or is it more likely that they'd keep the specs the same but just change the O/S?

If you are willing to wait for Snow Leopard than you might as well wait for the next iMac refresh as well.

 

[Reventon]

I don't think anybody has any idea when Snow Leopard comes out. First I heard it was coming out in June, now I've read recently that it may come out around September. Also, from what I've heard, there isn't much difference between Leopard and Snow Leopard, except for some minor "under the hood" tweaking.

But, I was in the same situation as you. I originally wanted to buy a Mac around January, but then I heard that the new iMacs were coming out soon, so I opted to wait three months until it came out. (and until I got my tax refund). I thought about waiting for Snow Leopard too, but I didn't want to wait that long.

My old PC as dying on me. Leopard is a good OS and 3 weeks in, I really do like it. Plus, I'd be pretty wary using a new OS just released. I'd rather use an OS ending in .6 or .7, than one ending in .0. Better to let other people use it first to see what kind of flaws or bugs it has, then wait for an update before buying it. (10.6.1 or .2)

Anyway, if you need it now, then buy it now, but if you can wait then do so. But I wouldn't wait, if it was me.

 

[sn00pie]

Buy now. As far as the official release date of Snow Leopard, there is really nothing concrete. Everything regarding the dates out there as always is just speculation.

If you want or need the computer now, then buy it now. Even if Snow Leopard comes out a few months later its relatively inexpensive at $129 for the upgrade.

I purchased my whitebook about a month before the new aluminum Macbooks came out. I don't regret it one bit, if I wanted to, I could sell mine and buy a new one, but I love it! (completely irrelevant)

 

[belltree]

I am (was?) in the same boat as the original poster. I was thinking to hold off and wait for SL myself but I just bought a Mac Mini for the wife (2.26 Ghz, upgraded the memory to 4GB and HDD to 320GB 7.2k rpm) and I am in love with it.

I am thinking I may just do the same for myself and to heck with it and upgrade later.

 

[jmpage2]

There's been one of these threads every couple of weeks for a while now. A simple search would have revealed plenty of discussion on the pros and cons of holding out and waiting vs. pulling the trigger now.

In all likelihood SL won't ship until the September time frame, then another 2-3 months for stability and software compatibility fixes, etc.

So basically if you are waiting for SL you might as well just wait for the next refresh of hardware at the end of the year.

 

[Tom Dahl]

Will Snow Leopard be Free?

This is probably a silly question, but are we certain that Apple will charge money for an upgrade from 10.5.6 to 10.5.7? Historically the 0.0.x upgrades have been free, whereas the 0.x.0 upgrades have been purchases, correct?

 

[belltree]

This is probably a silly question, but are we certain that Apple will charge money for an upgrade from 10.5.6 to 10.5.7? Historically the 0.0.x upgrades have been free, whereas the 0.x.0 upgrades have been purchases, correct?

Leopard = 10.5
Snow Leopard = 10.6

10.5.7 will simply be a new release for the existing Leopard when it is finalized (hopefully soon).

 

[digicision]

There's been one of these threads every couple of weeks for a while now. A simple search would have revealed plenty of discussion on the pros and cons of holding out and waiting vs. pulling the trigger now.

In all likelihood SL won't ship until the September time frame, then another 2-3 months for stability and software compatibility fixes, etc.

So basically if you are waiting for SL you might as well just wait for the next refresh of hardware at the end of the year.

Thank you... I think you answered my intended question indirectly (which I did not get from the other threads), which was: it is likely that Apple would do a hardware refresh at the same time that they pre-install SL on iMacs being shipped out? It sounds like that this is not likely, and that one would expect the next hardware refresh to take place separately after SL comes out.

 

[sn00pie]

I'd imagine that they will offer a program like if you bought your Mac within 30 days of the release of SL they will sell it to you for $10 bucks if you verify your purchase. Sort of what they did with iLife 09' and iWork 09'.

Macs will only come preloaded with SL if they ship it after they've announced or released it.

 

[mastershakess]

Thank you... I think you answered my intended question indirectly (which I did not get from the other threads), which was: it is likely that Apple would do a hardware refresh at the same time that they pre-install SL on iMacs being shipped out? It sounds like that this is not likely, and that one would expect the next hardware refresh to take place separately after SL comes out.

It seems that APPLE has switched there refreshing cycles to once a year, based on the last refresh of the iMac and even longer for the Mac Pro. If SL is released this year, there is very little chance it will come with an iMac refresh. SL will just be installed on the current machines.

Buy now and enjoy your computer, SL will come out whenever APPLE is good and ready, don't hold your breathe waiting for it.

 

[wesleyh]

It seems that APPLE has switched there refreshing cycles to once a year, based on the last refresh of the iMac and even longer for the Mac Pro. If SL is released this year, there is very little chance it will come with an iMac refresh. SL will just be installed on the current machines.

Buy now and enjoy your computer, SL will come out whenever APPLE is good and ready, don't hold your breathe waiting for it.

Oh because they did this once means this is their new tactic?

The imacs are already enormously outdated.. Saying otherwise is fooling yourself. If apple does not deliver a quad core this year they are insane.

 

[njmax]

Hi all:

I've been following the forums for some time now, and am planning to buy my first iMac. Like some of you, I was waiting since last fall for the updates that never happened until recently... and now I'm wondering whether I should wait longer for Snow Leopard to come out.

I actually don't mind paying the extra $100-$200 to upgrade later if I decide to buy now. I don't really need to buy now either, although of course it would be nice to play with it sooner rather than later. What would really bug me though is if Apple decided to upgrade some of the hardware on the high-end iMacs at the same time they pre-install Snow Leopard... If there's a good chance that they may change something on the hardware side, I'd probably want to wait.

Does anybody have any idea whether Apple would update some of the hardware specs when Snow Leopard or comes out, or is it more likely that they'd keep the specs the same but just change the O/S?

I'm in the same exact situation. While I don't really care that much about the software upgrade (it's only $129), I'm worried that they will release it on new hardware in the next couple months.

 

[mstam]

The imacs are already enormously outdated.. Saying otherwise is fooling yourself. If apple does not deliver a quad core this year they are insane.

What consumer programs benefit from a quad core CPU? If Apple would release a 2.66GHz Quad Core iMac and a 3.4GHz+ Dual Core, I would go for the Dual Core.

iMacs can see a real performance gain if equipped with faster HDs or an SSD. I'm gonna install a fast Intel or OCZ SSD as soon Snow Leopard is released or by September latest.