Bought a PS2 modding help

I am new to the PS2 market, i bought one few months ago, and my nephew scratced up one of my discs and now i can't play the damn thing. So I was looking into the modding of the PS2, i was wondering if someone can point me to a site that contains good info, I found one for XBOX, kinda wish i bought an xbox now www.xbox-scene.com good site for the xbox, but i have a PS2, and i read a lot of random stuff. Like version numbers v-3-8 ??? i dunno what that means, was wondering what the steps are to modification of my PS2. Thanks

look here to see what version your ps2 is:

http://www.mod-chip.com/ps2version.htm

It also tells you what things you can do to chip it, like swap disc and what modchips are available for it, if you live in america you could also buy any of the chips. Depending on the version of the ps2 you have, you have different options for how to mod it. If you want tutorials on how to mod it then you could go to

http://www.modchip.com/ps2/pictures.htm

This gives tutorials for different modchips for each version of the ps2 as well if you can solder.

Sounds good, i saw the swap disc magic and some sites say that it can load everything and some say only legal imports. Mod chips as well i have read have problems reading some newer games? I was wondering if i got the swap disc can i use it on any version of the PS2 and it will load everything? , or is it easier to just mod the playstation2 so i can load everything that way? BTW, I can solder fine, just wanted to know which chip is the best or method?

If you have the network adapter already, you can get the HDadvance and a large hard drive for cheap (more than a chip, admittedly), and load your games to the hard drive and play from there without modding your ps2. I even have an ftp server on my hd.

i'm sure that the swap disc does work with most games, i remember reading a thread on here somewhere which i now can't find that explained how to do the swap magic trick, i'll try find it. But from what i understand, they keep bringing out new versions of it and you keep having to update, so cost might be an issue. I'm not quite sure whats the best, just look in google, i'm sure theres plenty of sites with comparisons.

i use the swap magic on my PS2 and it is very simple to install the chip for it or you can uce the slide card trick without getting a modchip so you dont void your warranty if you have one. Not all games play with the swap method but abou98% do

I would chech in to the HD Advance or HD Loader although HD Adance is better. it supports bigger hard drives the the HD Loader