laptop cdrw which one?

[screen]

I've a old Compaq () laptop with a CDROM drive. It has a USB port. Do you think I should buy a USB cdrw drive OR buy a regular laptop IDE cdrw drive?

This is my reasoning:
Any USB drive can be used with this laptop. However, the USB (not 2.0) speed is a factor.

I can use a faster CDRW drive with the IDE interface. But, can I buy a laptop IDE CDRW drive for a non-compaq laptop (or a different model compaq laptop) and put it in this compaq laptop?

Any good deals on any othese CDRW drives? Pricewatch shows the minimum price of $65 (and don't want to rely on pricewatch vendors).

Thank you in advance for guidance.

-Screen

[sixf00t4]

what are your system specs? depending on processor and memory and such, i would recommend USB, but if it is older i would go IDE.

[screen]

The laptop is a Compaq 1200z with 900MHz mobile Athlon 4 with 320MB SODIMM SDRAM, 30GB harddrive, DVD drive, and USB1.1.

I tried to open the laptop to see the accessibility of the DVD drive. It is a nightmare. Cannot just remove the DVD drive, and replace it with a CDRW drive. I guess I have to settle with a USB drive.

Since USB1.1 is slow, is the CD writing reliable?

Does anyone have any experience with other storage media, e.g., ZIP drives? I know pen drives is an option. But, it is very expensive when compared to the CDRW media.

[BobOmega]

my sister has a external cdrw drive. and it works fine. its slow. but it works. i have no idea what the speed is anymore but she never uses it for rw's just r's but my old 10x out paces it by alot. so i'm guessing its like 4x4x32 or something

[PresterJohn]

if you get the internal cdrw you won't be able to use it on a different laptop...different form factor.

buy the external usb model instead, even if it's more $$$.