PS3 production date / firmware / store

Hello all,

got 1 question but it might be hard to explain :

i live in europe (western-europe to be a "bit" more precise) and i was wondering.

if i now go out and buy a ps3 , what pointers do you have in terms of models / HDD space / Production date (so it has that firmware etc...)

i don't need to play ps2 games on it since i have a ps2.

so BC is not that important tho if OPL comes out for PS3 that has more feist then OPL 0.8 (unlikely) so it plays ps2 games better i would be glade to be able to do so , but since it's an .elf i don't see any relation to model ...

any suggestions welcome :)

,greetz

Xtremegamer