Awesome answer mate, very insightful
Don't get me wrong, I love games. When my first 360 failed, I was livid, I did everything I could to make sure the console was well ventilated, made sure it was never dusty. But it still failed. When I got the replacement through, I traded it in for the PS3. I had the PS3 for a year, I loved the facts that its build quality was outstanding, everything ran the way it should, it looked nice next to the rest of my AV setup, it played BR films etc etc. I even convinced all my other mates to purchase one so we could play online games together.
However, after a year, the gaming experience just wasn't the same. The online component is so severly gimped in comparison to the 360's, that I went back. I bought an elite model with the apparent upgraded MOBO, so it 'apparently' shouldn't fail.
So far (fingers crossed) this one has been fine.
It's always in the back of my mind though, that another RROD is right around the corner.