Overheating Xbox 360? 2 red rings?

I've owned an older, white Xbox 360 console for about 2 and a half years now. It has always performed great and has never gotten the "red ring of death". Lately though, I have been having MAJOR problems with the console. About a month ago, I could go on the console and play for hours on end and it would take a long time to overheat. Now I go on it and it overheats in 10 minutes, even if I'm not playing a game and only browsing the menus. A couple days ago, I rented the new game, Brink. I couldn't play it for even twenty minutes at first because it overheated so fast, however after playing it as much as I could for a week, the amount of time I could play before the console overheated was around 1 1/2 to 2 hours. It seemed like my Xbox was getting progressively better and maybe it just needed to get used to being hot a lot. The console took a very long time to overheat for all the other games I own, even the very graphically intensive game, FarCry 2. Yet when I play "Brink" it overheats that fast? Now I have just bought the game Halo Reach this afternoon, and I can't play it for more than 10 minutes!! I've played my friend's copy for a while, even going and doing multiplayer for hours at a time, but that was around 2 months ago. If the console needs to "get used to" each game, wouldn't it have already been fine with Reach? I have checked a few websites but haven't really found any quick, safe (for the console), and free (or very cheap), methods of resolving my problem. I have read Microsoft's guideline for overheating consoles, they mention that the console shouldn't be in a small place or on soft fabric where it can't get proper ventilation. I know that's not the problem because I keep my Xbox on a flat wooden desk with next to nothing on it other than a printer, a lamp, and of course a TV, none of which are behind the console where the built in fans reside. I even have two fans blowing on it when I play it, one is a laptop fan and is supposed to be under your laptop to keep it cool. I put that under the console 24/7, full blast. The other fan is a bigger stand up room fan, I keep it blasting the back of the Xbox at the highest setting. The only thing I can think that could cause it to over heat is the big fan blowing air on the back of the console and therefore blowing the hot air the the consoles fans try to push out back in the console. That's most likely not the case though. Anyways, my console has PLENTY of ventilation, so at this point, I just don't know what to do. It's summer and very hot where I live, so that would play a major factor but I think that two fans would counter that variable. I read that sometimes the power brick might be manufactured to deliver more power than the console needs, overheating it. I checked the amount of power the power brick outputs and the amount of power the console needs too, they matched perfectly. I also read that the power brick itself can get very hot so I put a fan on it too! I have heard that Microsoft will replace or repair your console for free if it's less than three years old. however if it's over three, you have to shell out somewhere around 150-200 dollars. I don't have that kind of money to throw around. I'm pretty sure the console is less than three years old, but I'm definitely not certain. I'm a little hesitant to send my Xbox to Microsoft because I'm trying to avoid large fees here. I don't want to open up the Xbox and try to fix it manually, as I have no Idea how to do that and I don't wanna screw up any internal components, opening the console breaks the warranty anyway. I sort of want to buy the newest console because my friend has one and it's very quiet, has built in Wi-Fi, and almost never overheats, but I notice that I didn't see an input for the older 360's Hard Drives. All my stuff is saved on my hard drive and I AM NOT GOING TO START OVER. I just want to play my games and now I'm on the verge of just sending it to Microsoft and hoping it's less than 3 years old. What should I do!!!!