I did one a couple of years ago.
"Stealth" chip from ChipZone. 8-wires. Install looked a bit
like this.
Easy to do after removing a heatshield in my older PS1. Heat up the solder point and then jam the tinned leads into the existing gumdrops. Not much can go wrong except for sloppy soldering (blurring contacts together, melting stuff, etc.). Some of the solder points are really tiny and test your eyes and hands.
I felt the same way you mentioned: $13 chip and downside risk is low. It's not like it's a state of the art gaming machine. You can afford to mess it up.
-pmc