Ok Im new to modding the ps2 and wondering.......
Is there any method as simple as the xbox?
I used the memcard exploit to do a softmod, and all it cost me was the price of a rental.

Nowadays I dont have enough money to cover the price of a rental so my options are limited. I did download and burn an image of swap magic. Found it on bit torrent. BTW my xbox in computer case IS up for sale with a 40 gigger hard drive in it in a computer case, i grew to hate the system because of shit games like gay-lo (halo) and racing games and crap like no.
Im in it for all the squaresoft releases so i need my ps2 to work top notch.

Soooooooooooooo

Some questions for experts
and I DO solder fairly well because i graduated high school with a semi electronics degree (trade school)

(the unit i own is a slimline, version 11(?) i think.

1: Is there any way to hook up a pc hard drive to the new slimline ps2 (the one I have) As I have 6 or 7 spare fairly small harddrvies lying around. Any method at all? Whether it involves soldering rewiring or not?

2: The onboard network adapter - how can I network to my pc without use of swapmagic or anything like that (again all I have is a few retail ps2 games like kingdom hearts th ebest EVER) no cheat devices or ps1 disks although theres a ps1 title somewhere in the house if needed. Is there anyway to get full speed through emulating when networking like with some gamecube emulators? Can I connect to the pc through the usb ports in any way? Or use a USB card reader / memory stick from dell, as a so called cheat device to get some necessities over to the ps2 to pretend its sort of a memory card?

3:How can I mod a ps2 controller for use on a pc? Anythin like the box?

4: Are there any wiring diagrams out there to sort of make a homemade mod thatll allow booting of homebrew and backups without the need to purchase any disk or anything else (do NOT have th emoney to even cover a rental mind you) I remember something from xbox some tsop thing solder some wire and youre good to go without a modchip. Is there anything internal inside to solder / rewire thatll allow those, whatever the skill level?

thanks for any help in all this, sorry if its alot to ask