honestly, i havent noticed a big difference between DVD drives. just go for the cheapest brand name one. speed doesn't make a big difference, besides i think theyre all around 16x now anyway. also they all do pretty much the same thing. ive got a sony in my machine right now and its been fine.
yep, pretty much. it might come with a cd too so just run that...otherwise just go to the support site and see if theres anything you need to download. its pretty simple and should come with a set of instructions.
Brand does make some difference. If you get a cheap name one, it may have trouble reading some types of discs. Also, cheap one will die on you. I would recommend going with a Lite-On. They make excellent drives and they are priced well too. I have been quite happy with mine, it will read anything and has even burnt some cracked discs. I have left a link to the one that I use. It is a dual layer DVD burner. You are not going to find a better drive for the price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6827131419
Actually another thing to worry about if you care is noise. Better brands will have some amount of noise reduction in their drives, the cheap ones generally do not, but most of the time it's not worth the extra $20 you may shell out for a "silent" dvd drive.