You should expect a typical gaming laptop to last about 2 years. That's it. After two years, the upstream hardware manufacturers will have stopped developing drivers and supporting the components in the laptop. The battery will have aged to about half of its original capacity. The mechanical parts will have experienced wear and tear accelerated by the extreme heat generated by the high-performance chips in a gaming laptop.
For many non-gaming laptops you can expect more like 5 years of trouble-free operation. However that is dependent on numerous factors and is not a guarantee. Some models may last longer than others. Some individual laptops may last longer than others. I could tell you stories about 10+ year old laptops I've repaired and restored, but the fact is those are rare and unusual. Not something you should expect when purchasing a new or used machine.
[personal anecdote]
About 4 years ago I purchased a top-of-the-line gaming laptop for about $3,000. It was never my primary laptop, and I haven't had as much time as I would like for gaming, so it was under-used most of those years. I pretty much only moved it when I was going to LAN parties (two or three times a year) and for about a year it was pretty much only used as an HTPC. So very light usage. It started having some problems last month (almost exactly on the 4-year anniversary) and I've spent most of today going through the tedious process of wiping and re-installing everything. (Seriously, I can't believe there are people who re-install Windows once a year or more. This is tedious and depressing.)
My story is unusual. Most gaming laptops don't last this long. Most of the laptops of this model probably didn't last this long (there were a lot of negative reviews and failure reports for this model, I guess I lucked out).
I never expected it to last this long, and that's why I was already saving up for a replacement. Regardless of the outcome of today's restoration, I'll be buying a new gaming laptop this summer/fall.
[/personal anecdote]
Fans fail, but they're also pretty cheap to replace (if you do the work yourself). Before scrapping your current laptop, you might try replacing the failed fan(s) to see if you can get a few more months or years of service out of it. However, keep in mind that even if you can keep the laptop running, you can't upgrade the CPU or GPU. At the end of the day, it will still be 2+ years old and it just won't be able to give you the same gaming experience as a newer laptop when it comes to playing the latest 3D games.
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