I'm hoping to switch the fan to something that...

1. Not as loud

2. More effective at cooling

have you seen the fan cos i dont think there is going to be any thing better then what you have the bottom inch, inch and a half is all fan really what are you thinking of replacing it with

Something that doesn't sound like a hair dryer at full speed.

wait your complaining your fan on your ps3 is too loud? my ps3 is the quiestest electronic device in my house... i can hear my computer overtop the ps3... maybe ur fan is just crap.... full of dust maybe.. heck iunno... but there is NO WAY your ps3 should sound like a *hair dryer*

thats just stupid!

I'm happy to hear that yours doesn't make that much noise May ask if it's the original 60 gig?

And yeah, the fans even kick in at full speed while upscaling regular dvds. My room can be a little warm during the summer but I can't have an AC running at all times either

mine is the original 60GB and my fan is quiet as can be. I'm thinking there is something wrong with yours and needs to be replaced. And its going to be kinda hard to find a fan that will fit thats not OEM, so your best bet is just to find an OEM one and replace yours with it.
You can see why in the picture i took of my fan

LOL that thing is huge? anyone got some actual measurements on that?

must be your fan bro...they only way i know my ps3 is on is the beep and blue light other than that i keeps it folding.

i think the fan is 150 something...not sure.

the only upgrade you could probably do is put a fan from the new PS3 slim into a fat one since it is larger

I do know that Tailsmoon makes a aftermarket version of the PS3 cooling fan