Superdrive? RAM brand?

I'm getting ready to purchase a new 1.67 15" Powerbook sometime next week but there are still two things I am not too sure off.

The superdrives that come on the powerbooks are 8x and basically add $150 dollars to the configuration. Would it be more sensible to go with a combo drive on the 'book and purchase a faster (possibly with the lightscribe labeling feature) for mere 50 dollars more?

Also, I know not to buy RAM from apple, based on price alone, but now I'm faced with the problem of deciding who to buy from and what brand. I've been around on Newegg and Crucials sites. Everyone on the boards seems to talk up the crucial brand, but the prices on newegg for the kingston RAM look so much nicer too me. Is there something I'm missing about the crucial RAM that gives it its higher price point?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Basically everyone here tends to recommend crucial because it's the easiest way to find the correct ram for your mac.
It is also known to be of good quality, which macs tend to like...

Kingston is just as good AFAIK, so as long as you're sure you know the type you need - go for the newegg deal...

I also think that getting an external dvd burner is probably a better idea, as long as you are fairly sure you won't ever need to burn a dvd away from your desk...

I have an external one hooked up to my iBook and have never missed it away from home - your mileage may vary

I have the superdrive in my powerbook and it works fine, I like it. I also have that problem that I would miss it when I am not home, because I would use it in the airports and stuff when autoring dvds, not always burn then though but sometimes I would need to in car rides and such. I recomend buying what you need when it comes to the dvd burning but if you have extra money, get it in your computer and then if you want the faster one later buy the 50$ on later, think about it, a 15" powerbook in the scheme of things is not cheap and 100$ is nothing compared to that.

When it comes to ram I have the crucial ram because it works really well, I have never tried kingston but I always felt more partial to the crucial brand name, but I really do not know what that is.

Roughly how long does it take you to burn dvd in the 8x superdrive?

honestly not that long, but I really do not know because I let it author then burn in one shot. I leave it to render when I go to school in the morning and when I get back the disk is sticking out. When burring data dvds is really does not take longer then 20-40 minutes.

How much would a usb dvd burner or a Superdrive cost (after the original purchase)?

I have heard that a lot of the external drives don't interact with iDVD and imovie directly and additional software is reqd (probably comes with the drive). Is this true and does anyone know of any external drives that do work perfectly with these programs. I am in the same situation and was recommended to get an internal one for this reason as I was thinking about getting the Lacie drive with lightscribe later on.