IBM Thinkpad Ultrabay compatibility

[Laxer]

I currently have an IBM Thinkpad T21 with an Ultrabay DVD-ROM drive. After realizing that having a cd-rw drive would be very useful in the future, I have a few options for getting cd-rw drives.
1) I could find an ultrabay cd-rw
2) I could buy an external cd-rw (firewire or USB)

- With the Ultrabay cd-rw, I've looked on egay and the prices seem to go for about $300 for the IBM drives. What I'm wondering about is the fact that there seem to be other brands of removable cd-rw drives that "look" like they would fit my ultrabay. Does anyone know what brands or types of drives are compatible with the IBM ultrabay?

- Would it be better in terms of performance/convenience to purchase an external drive instead.. and if so, is it worth getting a PCMCIA card for a firewire cd-rw drive or just go with the convenience of a USB cd-rw drive?

Thanks for your input!

 

[FirmPete]

The ultrabay drive is an 8x 4x 24x. I don't think you get those speed with usb. I dunno about firewire.

We use the ultrabay drive overhere at work an ppl like 'em.

 

[Laxer]

The speeds I don't mind _too_ much, although I suppose my first option would be to get the actual Ultrabay drive or a cheaper version of it if possible. I noticed these notebook cd-rw drives by Matsushita that were going for relatively cheap on Egay when I did a search. Would these have been compatible with the Ultrabay 2000 system?

 

[Laxer]

bump for a little help perhaps.. =)