I'm tough on my equipment ... my last HP made it three years and ...
1. I wore all of the letters off the keys
2. I broke a few keys off the keyboard
3. I broke the original AC adapter and one replacement
4. I wore the black color off the front speaker grille
5. I wore the color off next to the track pad where the wrists rest
6. When I plug in any USB device Windows XP freezes
7. Battery life was down to about 40mins
8. Overheating and fan was loud all the time
But it wasn't a bad machine ... however I did pay 1500 USD for it when it was new HP DV4000 w/128MB X700
I bought a unibody MacBook when they first came out and after 2 years of heavy use and travel:
1. I have a few serious dents in the lid
2. I had a ton of scratches
3. 500+ cycles on the battery (removable) and it still holds 85+% of the original charge
4. I have a creak when I open it ... sounds like the plastic hinge is binding slightly
but it's still a night-and-day quality difference when compared to Dell/HP/Lenovo
and it's been about as close to zero maintenance as possible
just my .02