CompuServe Messages

I'm looking seriously at a purchase of one of the Mitsumi internal drives. Since I can get one for $200, and the next least expensive drive in this area runs for $500, the price of the Mitsumi looks very attractive. First, I'm curious to learn how the Mitsumi performs, as opposed to the Matsushita drive in the Creative Labs package, or the Sony drive in the Laser Library — the other two CD-ROM's I'm considering. Do the more expensive drives have a performance advantage which justifies the higher price? Second, I want to know how easily the Mitsumi installs, as contrasted to the other drives. That question comes from the equipment already in my 33-MHz 386 clone. I have used all of the lower bank of hardware interrupts: IRQ2 belongs to a bus mouse, 3 and 4 are used by serial ports, 5 is filled by a Sound Blaster card, and 7 is assigned to LPT1. I understand the Mitsumi needs one of those lower interrupts. Is there any way to get around that? Do the Matsushita and Sony drives I'm also considering use hardware interrupts? What about DMA channels used by those drives? I'd appreciate any advice you can offer on this hardware. I'm interested in CD-ROM, but I'm not yet convinced, because of these hardware questions.