My recommendation would be to buy a good desktop drive (eg... Pioneer 115) and put it in a 5 1/4" enclosure.
I've found that running drives off usb->ide adapters give good results.
DVD burners are pretty mature these days, there aren't as many duds around now as there used to be!
I have quite a lot of burners.... BenQ1620, Liteon 1693s, Liteon 20a1s, Pioneer 109, Pioneer 111, NEC ND-6650a, NEC ND-6500 - and find that the Pioneer 111 (full size) and NEC 6650 (Slim) perform the best. I'd generally recommend something with an NEC chipset over one with MTK.