Just some advice on the cooling pad, read about it and make sure to choose an aluminum one. There are many cheap cooling pads out there that will not help much. This is one I prefer.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834999336
As for laptops, HP is down on the lower end along with Toshiba. If you want a high quality laptop look at the Lenovo laptops. Acer, Asus, MSI, and Fujitsu also have nice laptops.