I would like to purchase a mac to be able to test my websites on Safari rather than just relying on screenshots.

The selection of OS and system is a little mind boggling to a novice mac user such as myself. Does anyone have a suggestion of the minimum system one would need to test websites effectively?

Ideally I would like a laptop, but would consider a desktop system if it is a lot more affordable.

You wanna buy a whole mac just to test your sites? How about getting an account @ www.browsrcamp.com so you can use VNC to test your sites, works perfect and only costs a buck per day.

Does that allow testing of dynamic features such as hovers?

In any event, I need a new laptop and this would kill two birds with one stone.

You can get Mac OS 10.3 Panther for less then $100 on ebay and install and run it on pearpc emulator. It is too slow for everyday use, but it does just fine for Safari testing. Btw, I find that if page works / looks fine in Konqueror it will look / work the same in Safari.

I'm a new MacBook Pro owner and would say you could basically purchase the Mac of your choice at the cheapest cost, because they design all their systems to work very quickly and smoothly. And if it's just for testing in Safari, you most certainly should have no problems.