Easy PS2 Modding

Hello everyone,
I am new here, although I have used this website for years now in the past. Anyway, I have been looking around the forum and reading stickied threads but I haven't figured out exactly what I want. What I want to know is what is the best and easiest way for me to mod a ps2 to play backups and isos. All I want to do is be able to play burned games and be able to maybe install my retail copies to a harddrive and play them without the disc. I haven't bought a console yet but I'm doing it in the future so any links to pre modded consoles or suggestions on which version I should buy would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and I look forward to chatting with you all,

EpicShyGuy

1: the cheapest is free mcboot 1.94 you can buy it on ebay its a mod memory card
2: swap disc but its hard to find than
3: buy modded ps2 its not hard to find than i have one with matrix infinty v1.99 and its works great

i hope that this will help you

For HDD use you will want an older bulky PS2 a Network adaptor and a compatible IDE HDD (they do not work with DVD+R's normally though (because that version of the PS2 came out before DVD+ media came out), you would need to change the book type for DVD+R's to DVD-Rom)

The Last slim PS2's can't be used with all the mods either (it has a cosmetic change to the look of those they are almost half glossy instead of just a thin strip)


Mod Chip + Homebrew [Least compat issues and freemcboot can be used to improve compat also]
Swap Magic (Later versions allow homebrew to be booted from USB) + Homebrew (This is a swap trick or sorts)
freemcboot installed to a memcard (there are several methods of doing this yourself (easy enough providing you have everything needed to boot the initial code) or buy a pre modded card) after install no tricks are needed


USB on the PS2 is far too slow so games do not work very well from USB in general or just have very very slow load times