Sata DVD drives oughtn't to be any more expensive than those with an ide interface, disk drives certainly aren't ;) (sata is cheaper, most times) - however not many folks make 'em as yet, as even 16X dvd isn't filling up 'ata 33' so why do you need something faster ? Well you don't - but soon, in the not too distant future, we'll see motherboards with just sata (on cost grounds) & if you want IDE connections you'll need to buy your own controller, but in the meantime, besides Plextor - MSI also make sata capable DVDRW's (infact MSI put out the first sata connected device, a cd/dvd combo).
I'd maybe though try some judicious firmware flashing on the pioneers.
(btw I didn't mean a self powered usb drive, I meant one with a plug ! ;) - as your comments about voltage are 'fair play' ).
On the subject of 'will all sata fix it ?' - err maybes not - as the only time I've got either an MSI or Plextor sata drive working correctly is on Intel's ICH5/ICH6 southbridge, so pretty much the answer to all of this is 'the technology is immature' - but that's not much flaming help is it ? :eek2: