External CD Burners

External CD writers hook up with USB or Firewire

Reviews say internal drives are easy to install, even for novices. But there are still some reasons you might prefer an external drive. First, if opening up your computer case makes you jumpy, external drives install just as easily as any other computer peripheral. Plug it in, install the software and you're good to go. Secondly, external drives are portable and therefore a good solution for laptop users. However, external drives are more expensive than their internal siblings.

LaCie was known for its external CD-RW drives. They have now stopped making CD burners, and like most other manufacturers, they are mostly focused on DVD burners. Their last available external CD burner is the LaCie Slim Combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM . Plextor and Lite-On no longer make external CD-RW drives. Here again, you could consider an external DVD drive, which will also burn CDs.