I'm wondering is it worth anyone buying a phat PS3 these days? Or should they go with the Slim? I have the newer Slim and am more than happy with it, but then I am not interesting in hacking it as I want the online access for the PS Store and online gaming. However I would be interested in getting a second one at some point to run custom FW so I can play some of the games I don't want to actually buy, and to explore other homebrew and emulation on the platform.

The older 60GB Phat PS3 definitely had a higher failure rate over the slim, but had more features and did look better IMO.

Without reading back though the CFW release lists, do that now offer PS2 gameplay support (i.e. give back owners this ability) as well as PS1? And also do they allow playing of PS1 and PS2 ISOs as well as CD-R and DVD-Rs? If they do then I am very tempted as I could then pack my PS2's and PS1 away and use use a hacked PS3 for all Playstation gaming.