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 One of the most obvious legal modifications of the PS3 is replacing the preconfigured HDD by a larger model. Given the PS3's capabilities in terms of being a full featured media center and the ability to download new content from the PSN Store, there is only one thing you can not have enough of: disk space.
Even though the original 60 GB HDD is not so bad compared to the premium 360, it is still not enough to store more than a handful of movies, MP3s and games. Add to that the very common feature of Blu-ray based games to install a large portion of the game on the HDD in order to shorten the loading sections of the game. Last but not least you might also consider to install a Linux distro on the PS3, which eats up another 10GB from your precious disk space. Ok, you finally decided to replace the orig. 60 GB HDD by a larger drive. But here is the next challenge: what is the appropriate HDD for the PS3? In general this is a pretty simple question: the PS3 supports all 2.5 inch HDDs with a SATA interface, typically found in laptops. From the available models go for the ones that run at 5400 rpm max as faster devices generate more heat than the drive that comes with the PS3. Next question is usually, what's the max size? As 2.5 inch drives are usually smaller than 3.5 inch drives (logical, hmmm ;-), the maximum size you'll find right now is 300 GB, which is currently provided by the Fujitsu 300GB MHX2300BT. Unfortunatly, this model and the smaller Fujitsu 250GB MHX2250BT model are both to large to fit into the PS3. Both models are 12.5 mm high, whereas the standard 2.5 inch drives have only 9 mm. So, make sure you remove those new Fujitsu models from your shopping list. My second joice was the Samsung 250GB HM250JI SpinPoint M5S which is very silent and not too expensive. The problem with this drive is a firmware issue that hasn't been solved so far. The drive is very slow on its first 50 GB (3.5 to 4.5MB/sec) Currently, the Samsung drive can not be recommended due to this bug. As soon as Samsung has fixed this issue, the Samsung makes up a perfect drive for the PS3. Last but not least, here is my personal favorite: Western Digital 250GB WD2500BEVS WD Scorpio. The drive perfectly fits into the PS3. The drive is usually a little more expensive than the Samsung, but all reviews on the net have been very positive. You can't make anything wrong here. The actual replace procedure is very simple. Make sure you first update your PS3 via a detachable HDD (FAT32 is required here) or a large Flash card as you wanna make sure that your game saves survive the disk change. The problem with the backup function of the PS3 is it's inability to backup both, your preferences and your account data. Depending on how many accounts you have ;-), this is a tedious task. So, make sure you have all the account data written down somewhere. Just in case. As you can redownload games purchased in the PSN Store and you can also reinstall games from disk, you might not need to backup everything anyway. 
After the successful backup, shut down your PS3, open the HDD slot on the left side of your PS3 with your nail by pulling out the cover on the right side, remove the blue screw shown on the image, pull out the little handle of the HDD and move the HDD a little to the right and pull out the unit. Replace the HDD within the frame by the new HDD and put it back in. You are almost done now. Next you wanna reserve a 10GB partition for a later Linux install. With a 250 GB HDD this really doesn't hurt. Use "Install other OS" for that purpose. Next you have to format the drive before you can actually use it. Use the respective function in the systems settings section. Congrats, you have now a PS3 you can not buy anywhere, ready to be stuffed up with content, content, content. Let's talk again in a couple more month when 1TB drives are available ;-)
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nice you saved me from buying the fujitsu one -.-
