New to the Scene

Hello, sorry to ask a question I'm sure has been answered a million times before. However I'm interested in modding my PS2, I believe it's a 3001 model (the old thick ones). What I'm looking for is the simplest, cost effective mod that'll enable me to play backups off of a hard drive, play homebrew (not sure what's out there), play region free (I'm NTSC), etc. etc. Essentially I want to be able to do it all.

Is a chip the best way to go (the only way to go?), if so which one? If there's a way to soft mod and achieve all of this that'd be great. However I really don't want to use SwapMagick, it's not polished enough for my liking.

Thank you for any help you're willing to give.