Intel Mac :: Super Drive On 2009 Is Dead?

Just checking to see if others have had the same issue with their Super Drive as I have had. In late Dec 2009 I bought a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac which seemed to work great for a few months. Then, every so often, the Super Drive would act up and would not eject a cd/dvd when prompted to do so. At first this really didn't seem to be a major issue, just a minor annoyance to contend with every so often, so I never made a stink about it to Apple. When it did happen, though, I'd eventually have to go through all the usual steps to get the disc media to eject, which sometimes had me turn the computer of then back on again, all the while clicking on my mouse. This really has only happened maybe 10 to 15 times since I've had the computer, which in hindsight seems a lot, but recently, over many attempts to do so, the drive just wouldn't eject a disk. Eventually I got it to to eject, but now it wont except disks, of any kind, at all and it totally unresponsive. Where before it would make a sound as if it was about to mount, it now does absolutely nothing, making no noise and appears completely dead. 

So… question: is it dead and if so, is it worth it for me to get it fixed or, maybe, instead buy an external cd/dvd drive that I can just hook up to one of my open USB ports? If so, what might be the best external drive to get? 

Info:
Mac OS X (10.6.2)