[quote name='newtype06']Are the systems themselves reliable, based on your experience? Am not really the type who'd spend extra for extending the warranty, and I'm undecided whether I'll grab an old slim from Cowboom (design's still better IMO) or wait for a good-ish deal for the newer slim. Any help would be nice ^_^;
If only this happened before Black Friday...[/QUOTE]
My slim has been running about 2.5 years now perfect, I went through about 2 phats in the same period due to the blu ray drive failing, anecdotal but generally when they shrink and lower power/heat they'll last longer.
I bought a second PS3 for my room on Cowboom, it was a 5, came in today. The controller looked and felt close to new, the system itself looked good with the minor exception of a fairly deep but short gash on the top corner.. not sure how that happened, but doesn't really matter.. but it does make me less ready to buy a handheld or something. Didn't actually get a chance to turn it on or anything.
I sprung for the $20 protection plan, from what I understand it works more like an extended return policy.. if it breaks they give you a refund and usually it's resolved in 5 days so that's nice, especially if they end up dropping it to $200 sometime this year. If it breaks and you get that $155 or whatever back it's just $50 to a new one.