Here are the burners that I have owned:

• JVC 2x SCSI (junk)
• HP 2x SCSI (excellent)
• Teac 4x SCSI (good)
• Plextor 8x SCSI (excellent)
• Lite On 16x10x40 IDE (excellent)

Based on my past experience with those burners, and ones I didn't own, I tend to stay true to what works. Plextor and Lite On are fabulous drives. But, Lite On drives are mad cheap. Seeing as how I don't keep hardware for more than a year, I would buy Lite On because they perform well and are usually half price of Plextor. I have sold 4 computers with Lite On burners, told 2 friends to buy them, and bought one for my office. So far, they're all still kicking with no complaints. Just my $.02.