The 360 is beyond any doubt an inferior piece of hardware. The 360 will overheat and break while the PS3 is only about 30 times more reliable, makes less noise and will last longer. It also plays bluray.
The main advantage for the 360 is that its cheaper. The other advantage was that it had more games, but the playing field is evening out for that now. 360 also has better online gaming if that is what you are into. Personally I dont do a lot of online gaming so I prefer the more reliable PS3.
The 360 does not require a bluray burner to play backups, which is nice and again cheaper. They also make you connect to x-box live to play games, which is a real pain in the ***.
Depends on your perosnality. If you have "friends" that all plays 360. Go for the 360. Xbox is only fun when your playing with friends.
But if you want to go for the high quality games. You could still play with people on the ps3 but hardly any of your friends would own this system.
I own the new 360 250 GB and its not that great of a difference besides its looks. Xbox has become boring now a days, But the new and better games are coming real soon! Halo Reach, Call of duty: Black Ops, Dead Rising 2!!! I would get both, cus i have both and it really depends on your personality of which system to get.
Oh and the new 360 - They got rid of the Red Ring So you dont have to worry about overheating!!!
But a good thing about the ps3 is the Blue ray player!!! 360 dont have blue ray so get both!!!