Originally Posted by
Satoshi_Matrix
What is at issue isn't the longevity of the hardware, but of the software. The GD-ROM format Sega used is prone to especially prone to disc rot. There have been people who have bought new sealed Dreamcast games, opened them up to literally discover holes in the discs rendering them unplayable. This will happen to CDs and DVDs eventually too, but not for a long time yet. Dreamcast games are not something you should get into collecting because of they are already starting to deteriorate.
So just get a Dreamcast and burn your games onto CD-Rs. They'll rot too of course, but who cares, when that happens burn another one.
Therefore it doesn't matter at all which region dreamcast you get.