My best friend has had a gateway laptop for 4 years now (she bought it when she came to college) and hasn't had any problems with it. Before I bought my Acer that I have now, I bought an HP that lasted 3 days before the hard drive crashed!
I don't like my Acer and I'm too paranoid to get another HP. I toyed with the idea of going with a Mac but they are way more expensive than I'm willing to pay.