Marc has a dell laptop. The fan on it sounds like a jet engine compaired to the fan on my HP lappy. The HP also moves significantly more air. Maybe Dells are just loud? Get a can of compressed air and spray the hell out of the vents. See if that helps it at all.
I would give it a through cleaning. Wash/wax and a good vacuuming/shampooing. Also, just take it to midas or someplace just to get the exhaust fixxed cheap. Maybe a bed liner too. What about a DIY spray-on bed liner? Keep anything you do cheap.
http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/
Some scammer in England tried to scam a free powerbook off an e-bay seller. What he got instead was very expensive (for him) ownage.
The pics at the bottom of the first page are great.
Actually, I was killing time and stipped in a T.J. Maxx and they had decent prices on Luggage. Not non-name brand crap either. Filene's basement sells it also.