[quote name='jman619']I can tell a big difference between the 2006 and 2009 model. For one the 2009 model doesn't get anywhere near as hot as the 2006 model did and is extremely quiet compared to the ones I had that sounded like a jet taking off.
After I've had 6 360's die on me. That's one of the main reasons I only get exclusives on 360. As bad as my luck is with them I'm sort of tempted to get rid of the one I've got now and buy a new one when Gears Of War 3 is out.[/QUOTE]
That's the problem though. Quiet = bad in some cases.
My repaired 360, which works fine for me, but I don't trust enough to sell -- it's got a whispermax in it, one of the super models with the "turbo" switch -- and it runs on turbo constantly -- sounds like a lawnmower, but runs like a champ.
As far as I can tell, the problem with the older 360s was twofold, and nobody really got the solution right.
(1) The fan was inadequate, so it didn't draw out enough of the heat from inside the box.
(2) The heatsinks were inadequate, so they didn't draw enough heat away from the chips.
Combine 1 and 2 and you have a board that flexes and softened solder, stressing/breaking the joints for either the CPU or GPU.
Sure, you can disassemble, clean, and add rigor to the board with the heatsink fix, but you can't remove all flexibility from the board and if the heat gets high because of the fan not exchanging the air properly, it's still going to flex some and

up the solder joints again.
Upgrade the fan AND apply the heatsink fix? I've had my box that I fixed in August of 2009 running still to this day. (Previous fixes without fan upgrade yielded about 20 hours of gameplay before it stressed enough to need ANOTHER re-fix...)