Worried about my PSP, considering replacement

So for quite some time now, the UMD drive of my PSP has gotten worse and worse, to the point that it takes a considerable amount of opening and closing the drive (getting it to try reading again and again) until it finally registeres the disc.

I've made peace with this issue, but as of late, I've noticed some more troubling problems. It's randomly cut out on me while listening to music, something it's never done in the past two years of ownership. I'm thinking it may have something to do with the console banging up against my leg as I walk, as I keep it in my left cargo pocket, but I've been keeping it in the same pocket for over a year now without ever experiencing this trouble. And of course there's always the possibility the battery is just on its last leg.

But while neither of these problems on their own merit any real action, their combination makes me think it may be time to buy a second (actually a third, I ruined my first one in an attemp to install PSP2TV). This brings about some questions, and I though I'd put them to you, oh loyal DCEmu posters.

If I get a new PSP, should I go with the old model, which I would be able to get with a firmware I could downgrade, then upgrade to 3.52 M33 with no real trouble (I also make use the IR port through a number of homebrew, specifically the universal and PS2 remotes). Or should I throw caution to the wind and get a slim, hoping FW 3.60 will be cracked in the readily foreseeable future?

Thanks in advance for any useful suggestions.

my psp has been showing the same problems but the screen cracked on mine

i wount get the slim psp because if your like me that keeps his psp in his pocket then those problems would just arise more faster on a less sturdy psp plus a psp is nothing without homebrew we all know that

Well like I said, I don't think it has anything to do with hitting my leg in my pocket, because I've been doing that for over a year now, and It's never randomly cut out like that. Really, this is more a question of whether, for a homebrewer, it would be more wise to get the classic PSP that we all know and love, or go out on a limb for the risks and possible rewards of the new model.

I'd say get the most recent one you can get (not slim).

Order a brand new 1.5 >_>

I'd wait a bit and see how the slim pans out and decide. Then buy a decent case. There's plenty to choose from as well.