Well, it did take 3 years for the PS3's to start showing this issue, compared to the 6-9 months for the Xbox360....
That said, the biggest enemy seems to actually be dust to the PS3 owners. Clogged air intakes seem to be the main reason for the overheating that causes any weak solder joint to go. Keeping it clean may go a long way to keeping it from happening to you. Since the warrenty is probably up for anyone who has an early 60GB version, you might as well open it up to do a real cleaning (not just putting a vacuum to the exhaust vents like the manual says). The fan intakes are on the front/bottom and are accessible once opening the case. You can then use compressed air to blow from the inside out to the front to clear the intakes (use the extender that comes with most compressed air cans). Do not blow the air into the system from the outside since you are just likely to jam the dust into things like the fan bearing housing. I have cleaned my system twice since I have gotten it, and each time the fan has noticeably gotten softer from not needing to spin as hard to remove the heat in the system.