/vr/ - Retro Games

My beloved Commodore 64 Breadbin's video chip is probably dead / dying judging from the troubleshooting guides I've read, and after having replaced several other chips without fully resolving the problem. Problem is I'm an American and the NTSC VIC-II chips are about 3 to 4 times more expensive than the PAL equivalents. Should I drop $80 on a replacement video chip that could end up dying in a few years, or hold out for the Kawari FPGA replacement chip? That thing will last pretty much forever and comes with some nice additional video out options, but will probably be much more expensive, and there's not even a ballpark estimate on when it'll be for sale because it's still in beta.

Should I just bite the bullet, order a replacement old stock chip and hope that by the time it fails the Kawari is out, or should I just box the old girl up and wait? I really don't want to wait that long, but the only real third option is to buy an Ultimate 64 board which will be many times more expensive, and if I built an Ultimate 64 I'd want it to be in a brand new case with a new mechanical keyboard and all that nice stuff. I just want to rehab my breadbin, especially with all the work I've already done on the board over the years.