First of all, I don't recommend installing a Modchip at all because too much can go wrong, and of course you lose your warranty.
FURTHER, you can mod your wii without having to mod your hardware at all.
I followed
this tutorial, and now my Wii can be used as a media player, not to mention play backup up games from a USB hard drive. I highly recommend this tutorial, because anybody can carry out the steps. I'm an scared idiot with these things and I pulled it off without problems!