Mari-Anne,

If you are only going to use your laptop only at home, then you may be better off considering a desktop computer with the LCD screen mounted on a remote extension arm that you could position any which way you like.  These can give you up to 3ft or more of movement of the monitor and they are relatively inexpensive.

Laptops are a serious compromise and much more expensive that their desktop counterparts.  Hard drives are generally slower and the CPUs slower due to power requirements.  RAM limtations also crop up because you cannot get more than 4Gb unless you pick a 'workstation' class laptop, which is a lot of $$$.

I've had several HP laptops - do a google search for hardware forums to find out the problems specific models may have.  I know that certain HP models have HAD a problem with the power plug coming loose from the motherboard - replacing the mobo the only option - there are some indepedent fixit guys that can re-solder.  I treat my laptop with a lot of respect so it's been 100% reliable for me.

Good luck.