PS2 modchip advice - help?

A few months back our PS2 hit the point where it freezes so often that playing most games is becoming a serious exercise in frustration. We were planning to just replace it once the PS3 comes out, but most of our favourite games are imported, and from what I've heard, it sounds like the PS3 is supposed to be regionless with regard to PS3 games, but it still won't let you play PS2 games from other regions (anyone who's actually bought one know if this is accurate?). Since I'm guessing there's no reliable way of modding the PS3 out there yet, we decided we'd put off buying one until we've found some PS3 games which we actually want to buy.

In the meantime, we figured that since the PS2 is going so cheap now, we'd just buy and mod a new one of those. Thing is, we've had some trouble with mod chips in the past, so we want to make sure we're getting one that will a) work, b) last, and c) not be unjustifiably overpriced. So, since I know a lot of you out there have modded PS2s of your own, can anyone make any recommendations as to where we should look?