If you don't mind , you may read abt the coments posted by other pple in my Wii threads . http://www.sgforums.com/forums/1286/topics/293022 . Hope that helps .
If you have budget problem then get it mod , but once you mod it , you have to be very carefull once you mod it because any upgrade in the software will may your modding , and as for original , i heard that there is a latest version or software for wii that disable the freeloader function which means you can't use the freeloader disc once you upgrade to latest software version . As for pirated games i would recomend to get from shops instead of download to play it safe . I ever saw that they sell pirated wii games in disc form , but i don't know the pricing . For jap set modded with wiimopte n nunchuck i think is ard $400+ . For asian set think is more then that . So last but not least i would encourage pple to get original set to prevent any possible problems .