[shifuimam]

...make your own, if you happen to have an old iBook/PowerBook/any laptop with an optical drive hanging around unused.

I just got a slim optical drive enclosure off eBay for about $10 and used an optical drive from a laptop I'm not using to create a slim external DVD-/+RW that I can use with my drive-less computers (netbooks and my eee Top). Took about ten minutes to do, costs a hell of a lot less than Apple's overpriced peripheral, and works off one USB port (although a power cable is included if your laptop or desktop doesn't output enough power for the drive; it also uses USB).

Worked damn well for me, at any rate.

[ibook_steve]

So you forget to put in the most important info: how much did this cost to build?

Slim optical drives usually cost more than $100 themselves I thought.

Steve

[Spheric Harlot]

Ten dollars, according to her post.

[shifuimam]

Yeah, it was ten bucks. I salvaged the optical drive from an unused laptop.

Hot top: laptops since at least 2000 all use identical optical hardware with a standardized connector. Any laptop will work.

You can get a slim drive on eBay for dirt cheap, though - the CD-RW/DVD-ROM I put in my clamshell was only like $15 shipped.