1. Plextor. If anything doesn't work, it's almost certainly not the drive's fault
2. Yamaha used to be a good 2nd best for less money

They nearly all have BURN (buffer under-run) proofing now. The differences between models are things like how compatible they are with different types of media. My Plextor makes reliable CDRs on unbranded media that cost 13p/disk, and has done so with everything else I've thown at it in the past.

Actually this is old-ish advice. It may well be that they all work pretty well now and there's not so much difference.

Anahata