Mine took about a year, but I didn't use it much then. There's a white, waxy stuff which goes between the CPU/GPU and the heatsink. You can get some
ArctiClean, which makes removal of the old very easy (and leaves your PS3 smelling of oranges for a couple weeks). Then I used
Arctic Silver 5 to replace it. You can find step-by-step instructions on how to open the PS3, and replace the thermal paste. It made a huge and immediate difference for my system. The Arctic Silver also lasts longer (it actually cures with heat) than the wax Sony used (which remelts every time the system gets hot, and eventually works its way out from between the surfaces). I did mine about 18 months ago, and it is still quite.
The 80 gig is still an older one. 2 or 4 USB ports? 4 would put it in the first or second production run, which means it uses the hottest chip they built (same as my 60).
