Mine went for 3 years without a fault then I got the red rings, got a kit for £5 off ebay, spent 2 hours stripping and cleaning it out and doing the repair and its been fine for 6 months so far with a lot of use.

No denying he PS3 is a more reliable unit, I just dont rate it as highly as the 360 for gaming and I was a MASSIVE Playstation fan in the past