Sounds like now is the perfect time to send your console in to sony for repairs.

my console clicks as well when the heat makes it expand, and its more of a settling noise than a repeating click. This only occurs with the slim and not my original 60 gig fat model.

A new model will have smaller components and the overall depth may decrease, (as this dimension currently is actually marginally larger than the original fat). They may shuffle the hard drives around again as well.

But a wish list would be changing the aesthetic slightly to have a black aluminium case with the PS3 text that illuminates from within from new led lights. The aluminium would also serve as one big heat sinc and help with the consoles cooling, much like some laptops. They re-introduce 4 usb's and BC to the console. They package it with the PS-Move Bundle and call it the PS3 ultimate, for $300.

This would be 1 of the 2 new skus introduced.

The other would be just the new case, (no extra usbs, no bc, smaller hard drive, no ps move bundle included) for $200

Both consoles keep the same dimensions as the current slim (with possible depth reduction) and they would FLY off the shelves this holiday season.

Here is what I think this means. PS3 Slimmer:

1) Slightly smaller outside design

2) The return of PS2 BC (as a show of needed customer service after the PSN outage)

3) Smaller chipset

4) Beefed up security (something that allows Sony to constantly monitor the system, as soon as something not authorized happens, they pull the plug and the system is dead. Or something along those lines)

5) Going from 512mb on just the GPU to 850mb, taking some pressure off of the Cell Processor so it can help focus more attention of security.

6) Improving the system to support up to 10 controllers (mainly to add more Move support to the system)

7) Price will stay the same, but I would look at a permanent bundle to launch for both models. Having one Move and PSEye packed in with Sorcery or just throw in Sports Champions or EyePet 2. The DualShock 3 will be packed in too of course.

8) The first shipment of (roughly) 500k to 1 million PS3 Slimmers will have a 1 month of PlayStation Plus free and a voucher for unlocking free stuff in Home. (this being an attempt to move the consumer base purely digital so they can track the accounts better and cause more damage to the illegal accounts than they can now)

(These are just my opinions and not anything that can be thought of as fact.)

i said it before and i will say it again, Sony should add a expansion port and sell the PS2 BC as a cardridge. that way they save on production cost and people would stop whining.

...after thinking about i i realized people will never stop whining, but they still should do it

Most likely this will have the same outward appearance as the current Slim, but will have a change in internal HW to reduce cost so Sony can drop the price by $50 and still make a good amount of profit.  I doubt it will be anything drastic like a casing remodel.  And hopefully they will be announcing this at E3. 

All I need is backwards compatibility and a "game plus hardware" bundle for christmas priced at Euro/$250 and I'm definitely gonna get one.

This should be the 32nm chipset version and no its not going to be the super slim model.  That will not arrive untill the 22nm chipsets are ready sometime in late 2012 early 2013.  Also if the PSN fiascoe cost Sony more then 1 bilion dollars don't expect a price cut anytime soon.

so this will be looking different to the Slim-model?even smaller?sounds great...Slim release had a huge impact...now 2 years later a new Slim Uncharted 3 = WIN!

I highly doubt it will be any slimmer the fat model had 90nnm and 65nm chipsets and the current model has 45nm chipsets and will house this next model which will have 32nm chipset another redesign will not be nescessary until the 22nm chipsets are ready in late 2012 or early 2013.