Backing-Up Mercenaries and NBA v3 Question (Mod Chip)

I am trying to backup my copy of NBA Street Volume 3 and Mercenaries but i am hesitant because i dont want to make useless cds. I have a CC chip in my v12 with the latest hacked bios. I was wondering if i can just do a direct 1:1 copy of the games without rebuilding the isos? I have been reading about these games and people claimed that it was necessary to rebuild the iso to reduce TOC or something like that (BTW what is TOC?). Can you guys confirm this because the impression i got was that it was only necessary to rebuild if you were to use SM disks.

Sorry for the noobish question and all, i just started and am new to the scene. TIA for the help.

I know very little about the Crystal Chip but as long as it is a proper modchip you shouldnt have any TOC issues.
TOC is only an issue with swap magic and/or other boot disk methods.

Just use Nero for a straight 1:1 DVD copy. If you want to store or distribute the images later then i would suggest you use DVDdecryptor and make .iso's of them.

Regards

Wad