I'd buy a new one before paying to have it repaired. But you should still try to fix it yourself. Googling your laptop model and cooling fan brings up a lot
of people with the same issue and plenty of how-to instructions for swapping out a defective fan.
Then you can use the repaired laptop as a dedicated porn machine. And the new one for your day-to-day laptopping.
I'd suggest Lenova (IBM's consumer hardware spin-off) over HP (or any other brand for PC laptops). Refurb'd Lenovas are good buys:
http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/lapt ... criteria=1you can also find refurb'd machines on newegg.com and amazon etc. but i'd be wary of reburb machines via 3rd party channels.
A lot of those laptops come with old school, spinning-disc hard drives. Allocate funds to buy a solid state HD and swap out the HD's immediately, if you buy a laptop with a non-SSD.
oh, the link above is filtered by "i5" processors. i7's run hotter (reducing performance over time and shortening the life of your laptop) and suck more power (draining your batter faster). i3's are underpowered, imo. but it depends on what you want to do with the machine. AMD's, in my experience, run too hot to be a good choice for laptops.
here's the entire refurb'd/outlet inventory from Lenova:
http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/lapt ... criteria=1course, we're only a few weeks away Black Friday and whatever they call the Monday after that--when the internet sites make their deals available.