About a year ago I bought and modded a Sega Saturn and I've recently decided to do the same to my PS2.  However I thought I'd ask here first instead of searching around on my own.  I've heard that there's different types of chips, some being really shitty and useless, and I've also heard that people have had problems with their mod chips, or even their entire systems, crapping out shortly after an installation.  I found a great site for my Sega Saturn modchip, you were able to buy the chip as well as other hardware from the site and they also had step by step modding instructions accompanied by photographs.

I was wondering if anyone has had some experience with PS2 modding and if there is a good site or two that provides detailed information about the different mod chips, how to install them properly, Where to buy them, etc.

ps ninjapirate i dont think this should be locked because the mod chip sites have been operating for ages and i dont think they are illegal tbh

Its my understanding that the modification of consoles and the selling or servicing of modchips are illegal in my country.

All the same, I too am interested in getting a quality PS2 modchip. Preferably one that isn't going to bust my currently very tight budget. I need something to replace the current heap of crap I have that refuses to play NTSC games.

I did a bit of browsing and came upon this site.  It seems to have quite a few different products including swap magic stuff.  Is swap magic as reliable as a modchip?  Or should I just get a modchip and go from there.  I'm not too worried about screwing up the soldering as my grandfather is going to help (he helped install the modchip in my Saturn), so as long as we have clear diagrams and instructions we should be fine.

if you are willing to negate your warranty (which has probably run out by now) go with a modchip. i have swapmagic, and it does work on 100% of the games ive tried, but its buggy and slow and clunky to use.

Well, if that's the case then I'd rather have a modchip as it would be much more reliable.

What do you mean by buggy, clunky and slow? Are you talking about how it makes your burned games run?

No, the software itself is clumsy feeling. You have to pop the front off your disk tray, load the SwapMagic software (which takes a little bit), then use the tool provided to hook into the disk tray, pull it out, replace the swapdisk with your burned game, push the tray back in and rehinge it using the tool, then press a button and pray it loads. Half the time it doesn't, so you have to do it again.

So, yeah, it isn't that great. I woulda got a modchip if I could've been bothered, but I'm too lazy/solderless.

No, the software itself is clumsy feeling. You have to pop the front off your disk tray, load the SwapMagic software (which takes a little bit), then use the tool provided to hook into the disk tray, pull it out, replace the swapdisk with your burned game, push the tray back in and rehinge it using the tool, then press a button and pray it loads. Half the time it doesn't, so you have to do it again.

So, yeah, it isn't that great. I woulda got a modchip if I could've been bothered, but I'm too lazy/solderless.

Well, SwapMagic is alot easier to use if you have a flip top installed. It still might be a hassle, but it's easy to install and use.

WHat I have for my PS2 is a HD loader disk, and a hardrive, and a ps2 network drive (requires big PS2). Basically you just copy games to the hard drive, use the HD loader, and you load the games directly off the hardrive.

I have a Matrix Inifinity chip, it runs anything. It also has various settings to run in different video modes and such, pretty good. It can also be shut off.
I've had some problems with burned games and component video though, mostly the green image thing. Only happened with Singstar so far and I couldn't care less about the image quality in those games, so I use composite output instead.

I didn't install the chip myself so I'm not sure how hard it is.

Mine almost never fails to load when I do it. Are you sure you're not doing it wrong? It sounds like you're putting a lot more effort into it than you ought to, too, although that could just be explaining the steps in more detail than necessary.

if you dont think using a hook to yank out a disk tray that isnt built to be yanked out by a hook isnt more hassle than just.. not doing it because you have a chip then yeah idk what to say to you

SwapMagic's slide tool procedure is not that hard to go through. If you're having trouble getting it to work half of the time, then you are probably just doing it wrong. Also, after SwapMagic loads up, it takes me no longer than 10 seconds to swap the disk with a game and run it. You could say that this is a hassle doing everytime, but I still find that this is a decent and cheap alternative to mod chips.