Today you've got three types of optical drives to choose from:
* CD Drives
* DVD Drives
* Blu Ray Drives
Choosing between the three is just a matter of deciding which best suits your style and needs. The safest route is to opt for a DVD Drive, as it is usually cross-compatible with CDs, and the media is common enough to be reasonably priced.
Unfortunately, because the industry of optical media has never been standardized, it's a bit of a jungle. DVD drives especially have an array of formatting standards that you should try and understand before buying. Usually, if you're only looking for a reader there won't be too many problems, it's when you want a writer (burner) that you have to be careful. Beyond understanding the differences in the formatting standards by reading the specifications literature of your drive carefully, your main responsibility is to make sure any blank media you buy conforms to the formatting standards supported by your drive.
A final consideration is that optical drives are rated according to their maximum write/read speeds. This is a number expressed on the drive and followed by the letter x software'>disc burning software to limit its write speed to about half of its maximum.
