Softmod ftw, you don't touch the inside of your wii so there's no possibility for error, that is, if you follow everything correctly. Otherwise you can end up with a full brick =D GOOD LUCK!!!! Lolz jkjk there's really an enormously low possibility for the wii to brick and you really should softmod it instead of going through with a modchip/WODE. I recommend a USB Loader if you're going to softmod it. You save money, no discs, faster load times, and an infinite amount of games just for one hdd (there's no reason to get over 50 gb, I have a 250 gb and I still have 50+ gb left with over 70 games on it).
Hope I helped ^^