I installed the DVD-R/RW drive that my bf gave me into my iBook last night.
I swapped the bezels too so it fits perfectly and looks like a normal iBook drive.

It is a Toshiba SD-R6112 2x DVD-R etc etc. Burns best with Toast and iTunes so far. It burns with finder but has trouble at the end of the session and with validating. I'm not sure why, so for now, I'm sticking with toast. I haven't gotten ahold of iDVD to try that yet. But iTunes works fine.

I bought a PM 8600/300 from a thrift store. When I try to boot it, the drive spins up and it plays the "bawoom" sound but the screen remains dark. usual symptoms of a dead PRAM battery, but that's not it.

Well, I have a PB 1400 and I have an Airport card - I can't in good conscience keep the two apart!

I'll be running OS 8.6 or maybe 9.1 - are there any pitfalls I should be aware of before I start or will the installer be able to handle things OK?