Plus of 80gig

More HDD space (obviously)
BC (could sell your Ps2 to game stop for 20 bucks)

Plus of 40gig

$100 cheaper

 Whatever region they still would be cutting price. And if MS cut price for NA i'd assume sony would do the same. They already have Europe they need to focus on gaining in NA.

Besides the OP is in... N. Carolina?

Sony saying there wont be any price drop (something normal as sales would drop waiting for that) doesnt mean a thing.When they are ready to cut the price they will say it the prior week.And until then they will say NO and NO and NEVER.

I think that by november there will be a price drop.299 for the 40Gb and 399 for the 80Gb.In Europe maybe a smaller price drop to 350 or something like that.

If I were you I would go ahead and buy a 80Gb machine.It as a MASSIVE value inside.Blu Ray and DVD player ,BC with PS1 and PS2 ,conection with the PSP ,internet browser ,upscaling of DVDs ,firmware 2.40 just some weeks away ,Wifi included ,Dual Shock 3 included ,Home incoming ,already an excellent catalogue ,free online gameplay ,the PSN ,Divx and other formats compatibility ,possibility of installing Linux ,compatibility with PC accesories and most PS2 ones....lots of things.

While I agree that Sony would not indicate a price reduction before they officially reduced the price, I think that it is likely they have no intention of dropping the price of the PS3 for quite a while. Consider:

• The PS2 and its software sales represents the most profitable section of the Playstation division, and currently the PS2 is seeing (rapidly) declining sales
• The PSP is probably (at best) breaking even when you factor in the massive costs associated with marketing a videogame platform and its poor software sales.
• The PS3 is still an expensive peice of hardware, Sony is heavily marketing the PS3, and there are massive up front costs on developing PS3 games which won't make it to market this year.
• The PS3 is currently (one of) the lowest cost Blu-Ray player on the market and Sony's partners in the Blu-Ray consortium probably don't want Sony to continue to subsidize the PS3 and "steal" sales from their products.

Chances of price cut in EU seem lower because despite 360 price drop PS3 is still ahead, but the gap have closed. But in NA if 360 drops the price then PS3 will have to follow because they are both selling at par with Ps3 having slight edge and this can change. So it depend on 360 price drop and even then Sony may not want to cut the price this year.

they can't afford any further price cut: apparently they're still losing a lot of money for each console sold  (1.16B $  in 2008 alone: http://kotaku.com/5018899/sony-lost-331-billion-to-ps3-cost-pricing-imbalance )

Maybe late this year or next year

The best deal would've been the MGS 4 bundle pack but of course it sold out everywhere the day it came out. What a retarded move by Sony not making more of those.
If you have a PS2 the 40 gig is fine.

Bigjon: your profile says you go to Harvard. Lol you worried about spending a few extra bucks on a console? lolol Something doesn't add up.

wasnt the cell getting reduced to 45nm this year? that should cut the price down

Don't hold ya breath lol.