i know there's no 'best' writer.. so i'll share my needs with you experts so u could recommend one for me..

1. Good DVD Reading.. i view a lot of DVD's from all over the place and i need maximum compatibility with all rental DVD's.. my current standalone player sometime fails to read these.. so i'd love for my PC DVD player to be the champion of reading DVD's

2. Reliable data writing.. i'd want to use it for backups of images so i'd want the backups to be very reliable.. not necessarily fast.. but reliability is high on the list.

that's it.. now if i could get this for under $40 i'd say

Welcome,

Go to Newegg.com

Select either a benq1620w, nec3520, nec3540, lg4163b.
IMO any of those drive will suffice.
Chose whichever one is on sale for the least amount of money.
Don't know if you'll get anything under $40 (although some of the above have been that cheap), but definately under $50.

Any of these drives should fit your need. One of the most important criteria is the media you are using. Cheap media typically results in poor burns, and short life. Excellent media has opposite results.

If you want more details on burners go to the benq / nec / lg forums.
If you want more info on media go to the blank media forum, or check out the Bargain Basement forum for good prices on excellent media.

But more important than anything else, read the info you can find in this forum. Everyone has there own opinion on drives and media, but it doesn't take long to narrow down the good drives and media from the pporer stuff.