Asus laptop - good price but No OS?

I've got a question here.
I'm working in Asia & I've seen a couple of Asus laptops that look pretty good. A bit limited in models available, but I'm deciding between the F3J, A8JS, W7J or A8JR. Prices are pretty good & will probably go down more by next month - so I'm being patient & asking Asus owners a LOT of questions.
Here's the thing. The retailer told me that some of these laptops had no pre-installed OS - I could choose b/w XP Home or Vista Home Basic (I actually prefer XP cuz I've got a couple of older generation pre-2001 games that I think will have problems with Vista - but of course I could be wrong).
Is an Asus laptop with a "choose-your-own-OS" option a good idea? Is this an option that Asus really has? Or is this an attempt of the local retailer to offer a "good deal" to the buyer - along with possible future headaches re: hardware/drivers?
I remember asking a Toshiba tech guy last month about using XP on a Satellite M100 (with pre-installed Vista) - he told me that if I did that, I might have problems with some of the hardware & drivers because they were for Vista. But again, this guy was from Toshiba - so maybe that's a Toshiba thing.
Hope you guys can help me out.

 

Asus might be selling non OS laptops in asia to keep the price low. They dont do this in Europe and the USA. Tell the retailer you want to see a laptop with no OS. Turn it around and see if it has a windows XP or Vista sticker and product key. If it does it comes with Windows. If it doesnt then either what he said is true or he removed the key.

Hardware and drivers should not be a problem is you buy the OS seperate. Drivers are available at asus.com.tw and the non OS laptops use the same drivers as the ones that come with an OS. Some new laptops that are Vista only might not have XP drivers but asus is pretty good with dirver support.

 

Thanks. It turns out that I have the option to buy the OS from the retailer (XP Home or Vista) or they can use my copy of XP Pro.
It just seemed a bit strange to see a "no OS" laptop. I wasn't sure if this was standard practice by Asus or if it was something the retailer came up with. But after checking the Asus website, it looks like they do offer a choice of OS for some of their laptops.
I still can't decide which model I'll be getting. But these Asus laptops are looking pretty good
I guess it'll come down to the video card. I don't really know which is a better card: ATI MR x2300 (A8JR), nVidia 7300 (F3J) or nVidia 7400 (W7J). BUT I definitely like the nVidia 7700 (A8JS) - so that's at the top of my list.

 

Just note that the Radeon 2300 is not a DX10 GPU and it's weaker than the 7400, the 7700 is of course the best, but considering the 8600GS/GT is a good idea too

 

Yup. I know there are a couple of new models coming in next week with the nVidia 8400 or 8600 & Santa Rosa platform. Very Tempting. But I'm working on a budget.
The A8JS (Go 7700) or W7J (Go 7400) are on the top of my list right now. And I expect the price on those 2 models to drop even more when the new models arrive.
I'm also hesitating a bit on getting the Vista based models. I guess I've just heard too many people complain about Vista. I think I'll stick to XP.
I also talked the store people into charging up those 2 models so I could test them before I decide - I want to compare sound quality (for audio CDs & DVDs).

mujtaba, I see that you've got the W3J - how's the build quality? Better than the A8 series or roughly the same?

 

Ya know. I'm not sure... but you said you have a copy of XP Pro, right? Why not get Vista, and dual boot that with your XP so you experience both.

 

Someone did suggest that. It sounds like a good idea.
I haven't heard of anyone doing it yet though.
Have you tried it? Or know anyone who has?