I have an Asus X53Z 4/5 years old and purchased new whose hardrive seems to be looking for retirement. I get message:
, at the moment it's only once every few days but I suspect it will get worse and I suspect it is not worth replacing the drive.

I am looking to replace it but I have completely lost touch of what is available.

Can anyone suggest a laptop or a desktop suitable for web surfing and word processing, no music, no video, no graphics necessary. What I am looking for is preferably 8G memory (which is what this Asus has), about 500G drive, 3 USB connectors (preferably more), 15.6 monitor and a price tag not exceeding $AU600 including mouse and keyboard.

If necessary, I can get the parts and assemble.

Any comment welcome about this Asus, I have had a few used Toshiba laptops before and they lasted far longer for the same use in the same conditions and I thought Asus had a reputation for quality. However I am not looking for used machines anymore since the prices of new ones are very affordable.

Thank you for your help.

I think what you're really looking for instead is a recommendation for bare bones systems and places that have good hardware as well as a good reputation.

I know it sounds possibly not the best choice, but one friend of mine looks after the sales (in the US) which come around this time of year and they buy ultra cheap PCs from "wherever" and they put Linux on them. They're only requirements are similar to what you've mentioned, 8G RAM, moderately good sized hard drive, new enough CPU, and reasonable peripherals.

My recommendations if you can find a barebones, reconditioned, or "build your own" situation:

1-2 year old CPU, doesn't have to be Intel
8G RAM
Pick a medium sized hard drive and use external drives for data storage
Get 2 or more USB 3.0 ports
See if you can get a multi-card reader as part of it: Compact Flash, SD, microSD, ...
Wouldn't worry about a DVD drive.
If you can find internal Bluetooth and WIFI, get those, they'll save usage on USB ports.
Dual Ethernet is helpful too.

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I would suggest you to buy what you prefer, or even better just replace the hard drive (probably that would be cheaper).

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Thank you for the answers.
Eventually, I will replace the computer, I need to familiarise myself with what is available and, most importantly, what is of quality, I can only do that when I occasionally have a terrestrial Internet since my usual Internet connection is a slow and buggy satellite that gives sometimes 90 percent errors and sometimes nothing.

In the mean time, I'd like to contemplate the replacement of the hard drive, I was only able to find one supplier from the US who advertised hard drives specifically for my laptop, however this was the dearest laptop drive I have seen and the total cost including exchange rate conversion, freight, insurance and possibly a few add-ons would make that purchase about or more than half the cost of a similar new machine.

My questions are now:
1) Could I safely buy a replacement hard drive on its specifications alone (2.5" or whatever that is, 500GB, so many pins etc, I anticipate most are probably the same)? If the answer is "yes" then I can buy one in .au for less than a quarter of the price of a new similar machine which is much more justifiable (there is no standard 8GB off the shelf out here in that price-range, you need to order and pay extra).

2) Is the ambient heat affecting a laptop more than a desktop (between 45C and 50C in summer time) or are the cooling options limited too much? This could be the reason for the HDD failure. Years ago I used a copper fan cooler in a big desktop box, it seems the water-coolers have also evolved and have become more affordable.

I would also be extremely happy if anyone could suggest a hardware reviews site that is trustworthy.

Absolutely you can buy a replacement based on the specs. Pictures are worth those 1,000 words too. Look at the drive you have, the interface which is being used and look at pictures of products you wish to buy. And for the hard drive specified for your computer, there should be general description words like "7200 RPM SATA 2.5" Hard Drive", and using those you should be able to find something which will work fine.The only thing I can say here is to make sure that your vents are always clear. Any electronic device is going to be susceptible to excessive heat; however solid state devices may be the best performing in that they may shut down in a protective manner, or they may naturally lose performance where when they cool they are stable enough that they'll return to a working state. Meanwhile the mechanical devices such as rotating hard drives will definitely be more susceptible to constant high temperatures. Maybe consider a solid state drive (SSD)I don't have a particular one, but just the web in general where you can seek multiple opinions. If you find coverage about a particular device that sounds good, search some more on that particular device. You either find a ton of information, or very little. Very little if it's brand new, or if it's so common of a thing you may also not find much because there's not much to say. Or you may find a lot of discussion. Generally a LOT of discussion like "how do you ...?" "Has anybody ever .... ?" well that's an indicator to me that people have used this device, but not found it to work the way they wanted it too. But hard drives are really a dime a dozen these days (my opinion) and people are either going to say they like it or they don't. The exception being a new technology like SSD where I think there will be "reviews" and again you should just do a general search by product once you find a few of them.

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just a comment on reviews: I have never found one single site, but I always look for the selected/given hardware and related reviews

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Hi,

You may have missed; http://www.tomshardware.com/
Very useful resource for hardware minded souls.

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Hi,

@OP

I have been using refurbished Dell Laptops for years and find the cost fair while the hardware has been very reliable. Just go to Dell.com and pick refurbished and you will find hardware that is warranted at a very fair price.

I am due for a new Laptop this quarter and will get another Dell refurbished Laptop.
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

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Unless the specs of your machine are horrid you can replace the drive. You don't even have to remove the old one as you can boot from USB on most machines since 2006. You can get drives for $50-ish. You can get new laptops for $150-ish. Most everything that I've seen that borders on improved specs from mid-tier machines at 5yo+ will likely run you $500+.

I got an hp stream 11 for $200 last Xmas and it replaces my '07 desktop. It is a bit nicer actually as it's low power and low heat and "slightly" faster. It even has ac wireless. It's not the easiest thing to get linux installed on, but everything works in linux. If you're willing to make compromises, like usb to ethernet, or usb to wireless, or a usb mouse/trackpad for the right mouse button, almost any laptop will do these days. I mostly choose on specs and keyboard layout, or good old price when there's no clear winner. If you can get better specs used, that is sometimes the better route as it usually takes six months for linux drivers / firmware to catch up on hardware that is not overly supportive of linux and new.

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Classes of notebook graphics cards and
Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards

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I found Asus has used known brands for the HDD and the memory which are accessible by removing one screw for each, my fears of finding unbranded equipment was unjustified..
I ordered a 60 GB Apacer SSD drive (for booting, USR, VAR etc) and a 32 GB USB flash drive which I will try to configure as 2 x 16GB partitions in RAID 1 for the data. The total price is still about a quarter of the cost of a new similar machine.
It is recommended not to use the same device for the 2 arrays but I suppose this applies to spinning HDD with moving heads.

have only just changed out the HDD in this laptop,
with a 2nd hand HDD via ebay ..
( tested just fine - no errors )

the old, smaller HDD was starting to give errors.

& the laptop now is a triple boot. ...

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spinning HDD much more reliable than USB flash. I would not store any data at usb flash drive, no matter is it plane partition or raid array

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Spinning disks don't take well to travel. USB flash is fine if you plan on replacing it every six months and don't want anything on it to be permanent. I tend to run older machines on a USB SDHC card reader and a class 10 SDHC card. The reader is $10, the card is $10. Have a spare card just in case and for $30 you'll get at least another year or more out of your device. A new card every six months and keep it running on $20 of new hardware per year. Not a solution for reliability and long term storage, but an option among many to stay alive on a minimal investment. Flash storage is quieter, with low heat, and lower power usage. So maybe save $20-ish a year on power usage and it pays for itself.

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Whatcha gonna get?