Mods? Which one
 

I know the answer to this question, and its a messiah!! but not only can i not afford one, but i am not prepared to solder the forty odd wires it needs. So out of all the other mods, which one is best. I have already moded a NEOKey USB job, but am not that impressed with that. what are the no solder type R mods like as compared to a NEO 2.2. Or what about the Neo 4. I know nothing about any of these. What are they like.

first of all, the messiah is only 23 wires.
the neo 4 is 44 wires. and does alot less than the messiah.
the neo 2.2 is 8 wires, but damages the laser in time.
the no solder mods can't do games over 640 MB or imports either.
if you want a good mod that is cheaper than the messiah, get the origa. you still need to swap once, but it doesn't damage the laser and also plays original imports.

Mods
 

I didn't realise the Neo 2.2 damaged the lazer! is this the case with the NEOKEY USB mod aswell? If the Messiah is only 23 wires, how hard is it to solder. Are all 23 points on the bottom of the board, or is it a tricky job?

Arakon gives good advice.

On your Messiah point - it's not too tricky on a v5 PS2 except that you need access to both sies of the mobo. But it's not easy.

Nothing good comes at a cheap price in terms of effort nor perhaps cost if you get someone else to do it.

Origachip is a briliant chip and a good compromise. It's 15 wires but the same 8 difficult wires as for Messiah are present in origa.

My advice is for you to save for the 70 pounds it costs to isntal an Origa or Messiah. Messiah costs between 60 and 70 pounds epending on supplier and Origa costs around 25 pounds. Origa does everything but backups require a single swap using AR2/Gs2 or DVD Region X.

Listen to Charlie_PS2 he is a pro man !!:cool: and is it really true that the -R modchip can't do games over 640 MB or imports either?:confused:

yep, it's true.