planing on buying a wii to softmod.

[Shiozaki]

Should I just buy one new or is there a model or firmware version I should look for at the used game places around town.

[Inferno.]

Well if you want to play games off of DVD+R/-R you need an older console as the newer drives won't read burned discs. The Black/Red consoles do not play burns but do play Wii games from HDD.

You're probably better off with a used white console, as they hardly ever break anyway.

[Shiozaki]

How do I tell if the used one has the right drive .

[Zorlon]

http://www.wiidrives.com/list

Might help

[Jazzmarazz]

http://www.wiidrives.com/list

Might help

Its even easier than that. Just buy a Wii console with a serial number less than LU64, not equal to. The serial number is a long string of numbers, but you only have to worry about the first four characters, Lu64. Every console will play off of HDD though.

[Zorlon]

I won't run off of DVD anyway, I only use my USB HDD for me anyway it is the best way to run backups

DVD-R/+R will eventually help the drive stop working as there is an extra strain on the laser to read them at half the speed an original DVD is read

HDD is great, no slow downs, though there are games that don't run from HDD like the Sam & Max series 1 DVD but there are very few that have issues, even my originals got installed on the HDD

[Shiozaki]

Thanks guys still not sure what I'm going to buy, running them off an external hdd don't sound to bad...

[Jazzmarazz]

Thanks guys still not sure what I'm going to buy, running them off an external hdd don't sound to bad...

Zorlon has the facts straight. DVD-Rs read at 2x speed, Official pressed games read at 3x speed and an HDD reads at 5x speed. Yes, that means loading from HDD cuts down on load times.
For HDD loading I use HDD Loader GX, which has the best GUI and can rip your games from official DVD AND Burned DVD directy to the HDD and will remove the extra partitions so to save space.
He is also right about the strain that burned games cause the laser.

Get an HDD, save money, save your laser, save time on loading screens.

[ianhyphen]

If you are hoping to load Gamecube backups, the new Wii DVD drives severely limit your options. There is currently no Gamecube USB loading solution.

[lordrand11]

Yeah HDD loading is the best right now. Usually playing burned to disc games, whenever you get into cutscenes they stutter pretty bad. Also I use CFGloader i found that it works for me a lot better than the others.