buying a DVD drive for mint

[amcjavelin]

I'd like to upgrade to mint 13, but don't have a DVD drive on my mint computer...

I built it as a mid-priced desktop to run XP back in 2009 (keeping the case and not much else from my circa-2004 Compaq). Here's the specs on it (I keep everything in my moboard box for the build... I've ran Ubuntu, then mint12, and now I'd like mint13.

Compaq Presario case
factory "SD and other" card drive with 1 usb connector.
factory 2 usb connectors out front
cd drive/burner

new...
power supply (no spec sheet, hmm...)
motherboard (Biostar MCP6P M2+) http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=370#spec
processor (AMD Athlon 64 x2 5200+. Rated at 2.7 GHz Socket AM2, 1mb cache, 1000MHz)
memory (2gb Patriot PC2-6400, came as 2 1gb "sticks". 800MHz)

My question...
It works fine for Mint 12 (monitor seems to have some issues with it while booting linux, it complains about frequency settings. It detects the monitor as "unknown".), but I'd like suggestions on a DVD-burner drive for this.

I'm thinking of purchasing one of these... http://www.asus.com/Optical_Storage/Internal_DVD_Drive/DRW24B1ST/, and will probably need a SATA cable for it as well.

Any input would be great!
Matt

notes:
would upgrading to 4gb of ram be recommended?
How about a video driver? The one built into the moboard (I know they suck) worked as well as my old setup (stock Compaq, just upgraded the ram, added a slave HDD, and added a video card (it didn't have a fan! It worked fine stock with only an occasional hiccup playing Grand Theft Auto III, but I later adapted one to it from an ancient parts PC and overclocked it, ran like a top.)

[homerscousin]

There are hardware compatibility lists here at the forum and around the net for vid cards, tv tuners etc, but I haven't noticed one for dvd's. My gut feeling is they are so commonplace and simple in operation that only a unit with unusual features may be a problem. Do a search, maybe there is a list.

Ram? I started using Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon only a few months ago on a less powerful rig than yours. Pentium D with 1 gb ram and gt 220 vid card. It ran ok. Me? I'd save the money and put it towards new mobo, cpu and ram later.

[xenopeek]

That motherboard probably supports booting from USB. Clem has a tutorial for how to do that: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/744

For hardware compatibility you may look at reviews from other Linux Mint users here: http://community.linuxmint.com/hardware/search. And probably the drive will come with a SATA cable, though the website doesn't say so.