LacunaNova

I hope this is in the right place, I don't want my first post to get flamed.

Anyway, I'm about to buy another Wii, and am interested in playing gamecube back ups and wii backups. I also want the homebrew channel installed, because I like the channels and features of that as well. I was surprised to hear how far along softmodding had become, that you can now play wii and gamecube games off that, but also heard it wasn't perfect, so I started thinking about a modchip, but I am really lost, everywhere I look, I find different information, so I was hoping you guys here could help put things in perspective for me, and help answer some questions so I know what I need to do for the best experience!

I used to have a Wii, and had it optimized softmodded for wads, and other stuff and I loved it. That was over a year ago, and a lot has changed. So, I know the roots and basics, but I'm over a year behind, and as I mentioned, I want to enjoy backups and .wads, etc.

So, here are my questions:

1) Is a chip worth it even now with all these softmod features?
2) If so, which is the best chip? I've seen solders and clip ons.
3) Could I have them both on? (Soft/Hard) Any cons to that?
4) What's with the Updates blocking some things? When I had it, there were no issues? I'm sure it was bound to happen, but do I need to avoid a certain firmware update, or anything for either the soft/hard mods?
5) When I want to burn a GC/Wii game (is it any different with soft/hard) do I just use a normal DVD+R?
6) If so, what's the best program and settings to use?
7) Will the games run like normal once burned and inserted? (Soft or hard)
8) Is there any console (serial type, etc) or firmware I need to have or not have to do either of these correctly?

That's all that's at the top of my head, if I have anymore, I'll be sure to ask. Long as I get pointed in the right direction, I will take the time to read the right tutorials and learn by myself as best I can, but as of now, I have no clue where to start and where to finish. If I forgot any important questions or should know stuff beforehand, PLEASE be my guest and let me know.

Again, I'm not exactly new to this, but I'm way behind and lost, but am trying to get there again.

Thanks for looking and I appreciate the time for helpful replies.
Again, if this is in the wrong section, I apologize, it's 4am here.

Tealc

1) It's like best of both worlds and gives you that extra level of update security.
2) It depends on your Wii and what it's compatible with. Solder is cheaper and less prone to falling off, clips are easy but can fall off, drive chips are easy but tend to only support 3x drive speed.
3) Yes, no cons, only pros.
4) The modchip will block any out of region updates (should anyway). You can safely run latest firmware wqith modchip.
5) Normal Verbatim DVD-R with softmod, basically any DVD with modchip but DVD-R are easier for your Wii drive to read, includes DVD+RW which is handy for tests.
6) ImgBurn
7) Yes, softmod and some hardmods only support 3x speed loading.
8) Any Wii is moddable. LU64/LU65 are tricky to soft mod though but there are now workarounds. Some Wiis have epoxy over security chip and need a different trype of mod chip. Once you have your Wii you can search for compatible mod chips using your serial number. Whichever version you have on your Wii you can use it or change it as you need using softmod techniques.

In addition to all this you can also use the softmod to load games from an external USB hard disk drive or flash drive, which is very nice and fast too.

LacunaNova

Thanks so much man, that's very helpful. So is softmod, basically the same as hardmod now? I know hardmod is probably safer (both for bricking and security) but are they similar in execution now?
Having an External Harddrive sounds kind of nice as well, would save on discs. :P