J-RAD

I realize this is an Audi board but I am looking for advice/opinions/whatever on chips for the 1.8T. Not that it matters but I own a 1998 VW Passat 1.8T, 5-speed. Except for brake and wheel/tire upgrades, my car is stock (as a sidenote, I just bought EBC GreenStuff compound brakepads and HIGHLY recommend them - performance from pads alone is GREAT and virtually NO brake dust!...a huge problem I am sure many of you can relate to - and they cost MUCH less than OEM pads...we'll see how my rotors hold up but they claim to be as friendly as stock pads).
Anyway, I have more/less narrowed my choices to the Autothority chip or the Neuspeed chip but, as I said, I am open to all suggestions. Both chips appear to be very similar. Both are .8 boost chips and boast 43 hp increase. The big difference is price. The Autothority is listing for around $399 and the Neuspeed is $149 - $169. I think you can guess which way I am leaning. I am also going to upgrade to a K&N air filter. Aside from this, no other engine mods are planned in the near future.
I have no experience with chipping a car. Any advice would be helpful - including does/don't's of removing the ECU and is chipping this engine really that noticable (30% increase in horsepower seems like a HUGE difference) .

Clues

Last year, The Northeast A4 Club hosted an aftermarket event up in Mass an VW Sport (now 1552 Design) allowed people to demo either (or both) the AutoThority and/or the Neuspeed chip in their own cars. Well over 20 people took advantage of this opportunity and the consensus was that the AutoThority chip was better (smoother and more power), With this said, there were a couple of people who did not think there was a big or any difference between the two products,

My estimate was that 3/4 felt that the AutoThority chip was better.

I went with the AutoThority chip and now have over 15k miles on it and I'm still smiling!:-)

BTW, I am sure that you can't go wrong with either chip - especially with the price of the Neuspeed.