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[*MAFIA* Beatlejuice]

Hey my friend's cd writer went out today and she wants a new one.  Are they universal?  I'm looking online right now, and can't really tell if its one size fits all or you have to match it to your specific computer.  She wants an internal drive, and has an HP Pavilion from 2003. 

[*MAFIA* Scooby]

They are all the same size.  Just make sure you buy what you really need. For example, if she is looking into being able to read DVD's also, dont buy just a CD-ROM, make sure it has a DVD-ROM.  But generally a burner would be also be able to read it so you're fine.

Lightscribe technology is something neat, but not super practical.  It's for those don't want to make a sticky label to put over your disc so you just burn in a design with a laser on top of the CD.

Good luck. Hope this helps.

[*MAFIA* Beatlejuice]

How much do the Cache and CD-R speed matter?  And would it be IDE or SATA?

[*MAFIA* Scooby]

It would be IDE, although I have seen some SATA. Just stick to IDE.

I found a few you might be interested in.  I don't what the budget is so yea...
Combo
 CD Burner

I'm not too sure about the cache speed. Sorry.

I couldn't fit my words in an understanding way so I found this off some site.

Have you ever wondered what all those numbers mean when you go to buy a CD burner? When you see a configuration that looks like 12x2x24 (three numbers separated by the letter "x"), these numbers indicate the drive speeds of the CD drive. The "x" stands for the transfer of 150 KB of data per second, and each number represents a different action that the CD drive can take. A CD-R drive has two actions -- recording onto and reading from compact discs. A CD-RW drive has three actions -- recording, rewriting (erasing and recording over) and reading. When looking at the drive speeds, the first number ("12" in the above example) indicates the speed at which the CD drive will record data onto a CD-R compact disc. So, in the above example, the CD drive will record data at 12 times 150 KB/second. The second number ("2" in the above example) indicates the speed at which the CD drive will rewrite data onto a CD-RW compact disc. So in the above example, the CD drive will rewrite data onto the compact disc at 2 times 150 KB/second. Typically, the second number, the rewrite speed, is lower than the first number, the write speed, because rewriting is a slower process than writing. The last number ("24" in the above example) indicates the speed at which the drive will read data from a compact disc. So in the above example, the CD drive will read data from a compact disc at 24 times 150 KB/second.

[Swampfox]

You really want a DVD +/- R Burner...They are all universal in size, work by IDE connection...S tay away from Lightscribe( big waste of time)...Sony, Pioneer,Lite-on, all make very good ones...you want to get an 18x Sony or Pioneer...they cost about $60.00 online...The DVD +/- R burner will burn CD-R/CD-RW as well as all the other formats including MP3