snes emulation on PS2 (HDD or no HDD?)

do i need a harddrive for my PS2 to do emulation?
and do i need a proper sony brand HDD?
will other ones fit?

also
is it possible to use like a USB drive with a PS2
?

also, i'm a student, so i have no real money, nor do i want to mod chip my PS2

You don't need harddrive for emulators but you can still use it.

so what do i need?

You'll still need to spend a little money, but not much.

If you've got a 'fatty' PS2, then run out and pick up the Action Replay Max EEVO. It'll run you $30-40 new. If you've already got a USB Flash Drive, then you're set. Just follow the directions on this site for the PS2 Independence Exploit. (Of course, if you know someone who has the Max EVO, or who already has a softmodded PS2, you may not have to make that purchase.)

Once you're all set up, you can slap almost any HDD into the PS2 and have Homebrew recognise it. It won't show up in the SONY PS2 Browser, but it's there.

so all i need
is the max EVO thing
(i have all sorts of HDD and USB drives available)
cool
i'll look into this

also i have a fatty PS2
got it used for $100 back when the PS2 was still very pricy

is there anyway i can download something to let me use other HDDs or USBdrives on my PS2, i dont have 30-40 extra dollars right now, student budget and such

Unfortunately not. I've put a lot of research into this, and found that the Official SONY drive has a unique ID in its BIOS. The PS2 Browser won't display the HDD no matter what you do if it doesn't see that ID. ModChips can bypass it, but you're right back to the money thing.

The main reason you need the ARMax is to have something run on the PS2 side of things that can read your USB drive and copy the Exploit Files onto your MemCard from there.

The only other official product I know of that can use a USB Flash Drive is Gran Turismo 4, but I don't know that any work has been done to try to exploit that entry point as a method for softmodding. If that WERE possible, you'd be able to get away with just renting GT4, which would cost much less.

now
do i need action replay max EVO
or will just "action replay max" do?

never mind, i found the difference