Yeah it can get pretty loud after a few hours of watching bluray/playing. I have it in a somewhat tight space. I have the recommended 4" around it, but that's about it.
Most of the time when I'm playing games, etc. the loudness doens't bother me much. When I'm watching movies the loudness is super irritating.
From looking on ebay and such, I've seen some CECHE01s with reflows/replaced bluray drives go for about $200 and I'd assume I could get $80-ish maybe for the move camera SC. So, I would think I could get maybe $300 tops, more likely $275 for everything.
So is the potential quietness (not even sure if it will be quieter) worth the effort and $80-$100 to me....hrm.
I guess an alternative is I can open up my PS3 and try to clean out any dust but I don't know if any is in there and that would lower the resell value (having the seal broken).
