If your budget is tight, all you need is a DVD-RW drive. Plays DVD's and CD's, burns DVD's and CD's. Some, however, don't like having the more expensive DVD burner do all the work of playing CD's and DVD's, as it can make it fail prematurely. If that's you, buy a DVD player for about $35. Those can play CD's and DVD's.

A DVD-burner is backwards-compatible with the earlier formats, but watch out as there is more than one DVD-writable standard. What you want is a drive that is both DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW compatible -- the price differential is minimal, and the flexibility is a good thing.

The brand I recommend most is Lite-On, as it has the best price-performance ratio out there. Clearly, Sony agrees -- their next-generation DVD-burning drives will be sourced by Lite-On.

I fully agree with Sardukar on the utility of a 2-drive setup, both for reduction-of-wear and overall flexibility. Again, the extra incremental cost is minimal for the benefit received.

quite i must also agree lite-on has performed perfectly for me and is excellent value for money. i use LITE ON 851 8 SPEED DUAL FORMAT DVD-WRITER OEM and it only cost 79 pound . i dont know where abouts in the world you are but in the UK ive found this company to be good http://www.anglianinternet.co.uk