[katnapz]

I would suggest checking the review section of this site out:
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Revi...x?CategoryId=1
They do a nice job of testing a number of burners with various media brands...at different burning speeds. With the end results being that "yes," as pointed out in the quoted article by direwolf-pgh, that different speeds are a bit relevant to the drive and media. If you're comfortable with the chance that your discs might blow out in a couple years (or months?) then go with "max"-that is, after verifying that this is the optimum speed for your drive/media. If you think about it...you're only compromising your own collection when you burn without caution.
Personally anytime I trade optical discs with anyone the first thing I do after verifying the data I receive is to reburn everything on to one of my discs using my system and my methods. I started doing this a couple years ago when I started to realize that some of the discs I had received in trades (as perfectly readable) were rotting out over time while my own burned discs stored in the same manner were fine. Blanks are cheap enough for the insurance. Keep in mind that just because someone is smart enough to know how to put a blank in and press the "copy/burn" button doesn't mean they know what they're doing....they might not know that burning speed can be adjusted, or that they shouldn't be playing that cool game while burning because it's messing with the buffer.
BTW - Store your discs in a dark container/out of the light. Sun can rot discs out too.