well The best CDRW/DVDROM drive
was the Ricoh MP9120 (it had 12X10X32X8 speeds; CDR/CDRW/CDROM/DVDROM).
in fact it was such a good drive that only one other drive that I know of (possibly more though, I never tried to look) beat it in access times. It's CDR and CDRW speeds are all pretty good, and it includes
Justlink, so you shouldn't ever get a buffer underrun.
take a look at
Storage Review to find a review of it.
btw I say WAS the best, becuase apparently Ricoh is pulling out of America. They don't appear to want to sell drives here anymore.