Asus X58L - Some questions.

Hi all,

I'm going to be buying a laptop in the next few days but want to make sure I've got everything right before I commit.

I'm looking at buying this : http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_X58L-AP004E_Laptop_X58L-AP004E/version.asp?PID=880

PRetty much the top of my price range (slightly over in fact) and I have a few questions about it.

1. Is it any good? Seems so to me, I've used ASUS motherboards for years and they're rock solid. I'm basically going to be using it for office type stuff, along with some (non-intense) gaming, and basically all the other bits and bobs that I use my PC for, which makes a mess of it considering I like to only use it for intensive music production.

2. I'm going to be using some of my music production software on it which will require me downgrading to XP. The problem is, that this place charge £40 to downgrade, and £80 for an XP disc. I already have an un-used OEM copy of XP Pro though, so want to do it myself.

So, if I use Boot & Nuke on it and then install XP Pro, will it still work fine. All the drivers seem to be here : http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us, but am I missing anything vital? I obviously don't want to end up with an unusable laptop and I'm getting ever more annoyed that it seems impossible to buy a good laptop with XP still on it.

Will it still run to it's full capabilities provided I install those drivers?

Hope someone can help!

 

Dude, if you are going to use it for music then i'd get an external sound card

 

Yes, I'm well aware of that and have it covered already.

The fact is, the software I use doesn't run on Vista and although some of it does, it's very unstable.

 

Anyone?

I'm wanting to order today and would really appreciate some help!