PS2 Modchips

I'm thinking of getting my PS2 modded and I don't really want to bother with Swapdisks and the like. There's a place locally that use NH9 and Subzero Ice chips... but its hard to find info on those chips. Are they any good? Any recommendations? Or should I just suck it up and get a fliptop + swapdisk?

But the thing that's preventing me from getting a fliptop+swapdisk is that it can't play PS1 games. I really wanna play that Hokuto game D: