I would recommend picking up a slim PS2 and a slim PS3 instead. The failure rates of the original PS3s coupled with the small hard drives, makes them a poor option in my opinion. (The high failure rate of the fat PS2 motors makes them an equally poor choice.) If you do insist on picking up a fat PS3, I would make sure it works properly before you commit to it. After that, best of luck to you.
i also recommend the ps2 slim. you can pick it up for way cheaper than the ps3 original model. as awesome as backwards compatibility is, it's usually best to just play a game on the platform it was designed for. from my experience, i have just had less problems that way.
Unicorns. I say this because the odds of seeing such a creature of myth are probably higher than you finding a 60GB PS3 that isn't a hardware failure waiting to happen. I agree with Boulder and Dholza: buy a PS2 slim instead.
My roommate up at college has an original PS3 and constantly has to repair it. Thankfully he know how to.