imo, for your purposes, you'd be better suited going with an internal cdrw drive instead. If it were for home use or office use where the laptop isn't travelling much then an external would be ok.
Keep in mind the firewire port in the 8100 may not be powerful enough to power the external firewire cdrw, so an external power adapter may be needed.
I believe the faster spinning 16x cdrw causes more of the heat. They also cause A LOT of noise and vibration. If noise is a factor, stick with the slower 4x/8x. The last thing you want to do is have people come staring at you and figuring out what all the noise is about.
Just my 2 cents.
Plucky