Either way, the stock 24X CD-ROM is a complete dog and deserves to go, I've spent hours troubleshooting a few Clamshells only to find the reason I can't install OS X is because the CD-ROM was flaky.
I concur - from memory tray loading iMacs use the same unit, a Matsushita/Panasonic, and for some reason I could never get mine to boot off the Panther CD, and it would only boot Jaguar when it wanted - I ended up running a longer IDE cable and using a desktop 5.25" unit from a PC to get OS X installed on the iMac. Said iMac now has an LG/Hitachi Combo drive, which is much, much better.
