Loading times are shorter with using a hard drive or SMB. For games I have played off HDD it is not that big a deal.
Burning the games requires you to path the ISO before you burn it. It is ESR patching and it basically fools the PS2 in to thinking the game is a DVD in order to launch it in my understanding.
There are so many PS2 disc read error problems though that you may have some trouble unless your PS2 is in peak performance shape. I had to put an new laser in mine in order to do it. Most people say playing burned games is hard on your laser and will shorten it's life. I think dual layer games present even more difficulty but I have not tried one.
Putting a hard drive in is a really good solution if you have a FAT PS2 model. I just found gamestop is selling used Network Adapter for $1.97. I ordered it from their website for store pick up and was lucky enough to get it the same day. I think they will send one from another gamestop location if needed. You may have a spare 3.5 inch IDE hard drive laying around. Not all drives will work, I hear Maxtor is the most compatible but I have some Seagate working as well. The Western Digital ones I have do not fit the adapter properly. You can rip games with your PS2 to the hard drive but in my experience it is much faster and less likely to have read errors if you rip them on a computer. You will need a way to connect the hard drive to the computer to transfer the games. I bought and IDE/SATA to USB adapter to do this and you use a program called Winhiip.
SMB I have not even messed with since it is not wireless and I don't have a convenient way to plug a network cable in to the thing but I hear it works well.
