Small size usually adds to the problem of overheating... That's why PC's are so large and have so much space for air to move around in them.  You're helping to make the point that it's really well made by pointing out it's small size and still being so reliable.

Also, perhaps a HD console GPU and Processor produce considerable more heat than the primitive technology of the Wii.

Even if you use more advanced technology the product should be reliable. Imo higher technology is no excuse for higher failure rates.

Have you never noticed how hot laptops get?

And yes, they produce far more heat. That's the point. Wii's processor is very energy efficient compared to the HD's, but also so are the other parts inside the Wii. They also deliberately have less moving parts and thus make less noise.

We all know that the HD consoles are less reliable because their processors are more powerful (without the kind of cooling you'd get in a desktop PC), but that isn't much of an excuse. If people are fully aware of this and still choose to trade reliability for power, that's fair enough for them, but it's not much of an excuse for making an unreliable consumer product.

LOL are people REALLY trying to spin this against the Wii because it's hardware is weaker? truly pathetic.

There has never been a generation where Nintendo hasn't had the most reliable product, it's only natural that it continues. If the graphical prowess of the 360 and PS3 caused higher failure rates, that's a terrible business decision and shows that electronics were not ready for the increase in power.

Too many stupid people in this thread, and the only cure for stupidity is death.

My point is you can't compare the two. As far as technology goes they are from two different generations.

Old technology is innacurate. It's a less powerful processor, or the same power as earlier computers but smaller and more energy efficient. Nobody has denied that part of the reason the Wii can be so small and still be reliable and rarely overheat is because it doesn't have the kind of processing the HD consoles have. However what we are saying is that being powerful is not an excuse for poor reliability in a consumer product. Most people expect better than a 1 in 10 failure rate, and I think they'd want that especially from something that was as expensive as the PS3 has been.

They might try reading before suicide.