Well, when it comes to buying computers and similar, you need to take into account that the quality of each component may vary from piece to piece.
For example, since we're speaking about assus laptops. A friend of mine received a laptop which was lacking holes for air flow in one of the dividing metal pieces. The thing would cook eggs. He drilled those in himself and is now very happy with it, but it's a good example of how a single users opinion/experience doesn't matter much. Another example, I had 3 different caviar type disks from VD over the years. None of 'em failed me and lasted for years. I only had one Maxtor and I was defective withing a month. Yet another friend still owns a 12 y/o Maxtor which made it trough a house fire.
If you want a real opinion, then ask a technician who works in your local pc store store, ask which of the laptops they're selling has been returned the most.