ok im no newbie to dvd riping and burning but im going to break into the PS2 relm, movies are just getting boring to burn. Now from what ive been reading i can simply use just about any dvd recoring software to make an image of the game disk and burn it to DVD-R. Now my question is whats the best mod chip to get to try to avoid having to use a boot disk? and am i correct in thinking its just that easy to make an image and burn it on DVD-R to make a working backup?

I have a Messiah chip and burn my DVD's on the fly, so no Image file.
Other people do, so that's fine, its your own choice.
I burn them with Nero 5.5.9.17 on DVD+r and +rw

I think you should buy Messiah2 or Magic2 or 3 because they are compatible with all versions PS2 and need no swap at all.

They all play DVD backups (+ as well as -)

Check www.modchip.com for specifications.

great thanks for the quick reply, i just couldnt belive it could be so damn easy with a dvd burner, i used to pitty the guys that had to make svcds i guess i can pitty the guys that have to rip out audio and extras to fit on a cd-r, lololol. thanks again!

It is easy... yes.
When i make a DVD-PS2 gamecopy (about 4Gb) I have to wait mayby 10-20 minutes and thats it.

Okee Good Luck by making the right choice.