I do that because it's abrupt changes in temperature what causes YLOD to happen faster because stuff expands with heat and contracts with cold. If I just turned it off right after playing it would get cold faster and a sudden change in temperature could be bad so I let it do it slowly.

The PS3 gets hot when turned on, but gets even hotter while playing a game because it demands more power from the GPU, CPU, the blu-ray drive starts working, the hdd searchs for data, etc... making the system hotter than when it's doing nothing. That's why I wait for a while after quiting a game, to let it get back to "normal" heat so the change in temperature when I turn it off isn't as big as it would be if I turned it off right after quiting the game.

Ok when you go to the XMB to let the the PS3 cool down do you have to take the game out of the ps3?

Not necessarily but I do it anyways, there's no point in leaving it inside the PS3 if i'm not going to use it.

Does the PS3 cool down quicker if you take the disc out? And thanks for your replies. I really appreciate it :)

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought of using a notebook cooling stand :)
I've had my PS3 (slim) for quite sometime now and it's in an entertainment stand (kinda like yours but closed in the back) with a cooling fan attached in the back and I've never had any problem with it.

My ps3 gets hot all the time, it'll be fine I'm sure.

Do you have a Slim PS3 or a fat one? And which model is it?

@Ferrari_7861. Slim, black briday bundle (I dont know what model that is).

Thanks for your answers :P

It'll be fine if its like in that picture.

I have a 250GB Slim. How much GB is your Slim? I'm wondering if the different HDDs make the PS3 run at different temperatures. Also, my Slim PS3 is louder than my 80GB fat PS3 which I used to have. I bought it in August 2008. I miss it so much. Fat PS3s look much nicer. It was stolen :(