Yes, I second looking at
www.xlr8yourmac.com. He has a database there that covers what anybody has tried to use in their mac.
I'm not sure what price range your friend is looking at for a replacement drive, but
www.esbuy.com usually has the pioneer dvr-107's (8x dvd burner) for 109.49 (as of today).
That is a very good price on a drive that can burn both +/- dvd standards, cd's, and if he is running 10.3.3 it has native support for the drive. If he isn't running 10.3.3, lacie has a set of custom drivers that add support (look on versiontracker or lacie's website).