External DVD +/-RW

Any USB compatible optical drive that is sold today will work. This includes the Dell DW316, or anything from LG or ASUS. Slim drives sold for around $30 will all read and write to CDs and DVDs. Blu-Ray compatible drives will cost you at least another $50-$60.

If you plan on using the optical drive often, I recommend that you go with a 5 1/4 inch (full size) drive instead of a slim drive. These are larger and require their own power supply, but are faster and more durable. Alternatively, you can purchase your own 5 1/4 inch optical drive and install it in an external enclosure.

Note that some of these drives come with an outdated version of CyberLink's Media Suite, and there have been reports that it does not work correctly on Windows 11. The software is not required unless you want to playback DVDs or need more features for creating discs. Free up-to-date programs exist, such as AnyBurn (disc authoring) and MPC-HC (for DVD playback) that offer similar functionality and are less bloated compared to the included CyberLink software.