NO slot loader is durable. Period.
If you want durability, start by NOT considering a slot loader. For you this means going external. (USB or firewire)
And then you are dealing with a drive, in an enclosure, seldom made by the same manufacturers. (even if sold by one... lacie for example, does not make optical drives or hard drives... only enclosures) Note that not all enclosures work with optical drives. (and I have NO idea why, I just know it can be a gotcha)
Lacie makes decent cheap external burners. I'm currently a fan of macsales.com for optical drives though, they have really good customer support and I've had good luck so far with their products.
