DVD Burner (USB or IDE?)

[cp]

We need to purchase a DVD drive for backup. 
We are running 5.1 RELEASE. We have USB
IDE and SCSI on this fairly new system. There
are no USB devices being used now and only
a CD Drive and single harddrive on the IDE. 

I read the compatibility notes and searched 
Google for the wide range of devices available.
So far it appears that querying or searching this
list *Before* purchase is the best way to avoid
days of messing around ;-). 

Can anyone offer an opinion as to which type of DVD
burner would present the least possible hassle in
installation? What I'm hoping for, is to install it, 
make a new kernel and simply use it to write
complete CD snapshots to store offsite.

TIA, Chris