1) Yes the Magic V is a great mod chip
2) No the solder less clip kit is a rip off and garbage
3) Yes diagrams are easy to follow, painless? No, if you don’t have any soldering experience, consider having a pro do it.
4) CloneCD will only back-up your PS2 titles that are CD based. The app you want to use is RecordNowMax/DX. It will support both DVD and CD based games. The best place with tutorials I believe is
http://www.psplace.tk
5) You don’t need a DVD decrypted for PS2 games; it’s not like backing up DVD movies.
6) Take a look at
www.foundmy.com if you’re interested in the DUO chip.