Thanks for all the input guys..
I know that Altiris is probably the best solution however that's not an option for me right now. Just to give a little more background we use IBM Blade Servers. We currently own XPe so there is no additional cost in using Installation Manager. I also have MSI packages for 95% of my current applications. The farm is approx. 130 servers all running XPe FR3 with a mix of SP4, and we currently clone all of our servers with applications already installed.
So I'm back to my original thoughts.. What am I going to regret if I build a server with all the apps and image it. I'm aware of all the configuration changes that need to be done prior to and after imaging. Are there other issues I'm going to run in to? I've typically used a mix of Altiris, IM, and Imaging at previous positions so I do see the benefits of scripting, but we currently don't own Altiris and as far as I know have no plans to purchase it.
Thanks! Chad