By the way, regarding noise levels and the PS3, it was only the earliest models that were noisy. I know because I had one of the initial 60GB models (that used a different chip for hardware based emulation of PS2 games).
One upside of the early versions is that they output SACD, but at some point Sony cut that out. Not a big deal for SACD adopters, but nice for the late adopters like me. There are some other chip changes as you mention, and from what I read it seems like the older version are a bit beefier in terms of its cell processor - maybe that is why it is so darn hot? Sony seems to be cutting certain features as they balance cost concerns with market research. Not sure if any of those "other" changes makes a difference but I am looking forward to upgrading to SACD when I get a new HDMI AVR. But it can pump some heat and the fan is audible - for anyone looking to buy and old unit.
And I was truly impressed with the upconversion ability of the PS3. Compared to Blu-ray I think it does an admirable job on DVDs. On the whole, it really is a swiss army knife in an industry of single function units. My two cents...or less.
