IDE to SATA Conversion Question

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duk_chan

duk_chan

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Apr 17, 2013
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My new motherboard doesn't support IDE ribbon cables....
So I'm wondering if I hooked up two IDE drives to a dual-port IDE cable and then put a converter/adapter (such as a Tripp Lite P936-000 IDE to Serial ATA Converter or something similar) on the end, would it work? Or would I have to buy multiple converters/adapters for each drive?
The only reason I'm asking is because I'm attempting to determine if it would just be cheaper to buy new optical drives and a 2TB SATA HDD to replace the 2 opticals and 5 IDE HDDs that I've already got, or just get converters.

'Preciate the input~
 
Solution
Matsushima
You are better off with buying an IDE controller card which should use PCI/PCIe slots. They typically have 1 or 2 IDE ports each, and are relatively cheap, and you SHOULD be able to use 2 devices per port.
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Matsushima

Matsushima

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Mar 6, 2013
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You are better off with buying an IDE controller card which should use PCI/PCIe slots. They typically have 1 or 2 IDE ports each, and are relatively cheap, and you SHOULD be able to use 2 devices per port.
 
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M

mbreslin1954

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Nov 27, 2010
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Here's an example of an IDE adapter card (PCI, not PCI-e), which has four IDE ports, which means you could connect up to eight IDE drives to it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115016

Beware, it is PCI-bus, which is getting old and not so common any more on new motherboards, but there are also PCI-e adapter cards if that's all you've got in your system. There are also models, cheaper, with only one or two IDE ports, which might be all you need.

Here's one that's not a RAID card, and only has two IDE ports (up to four drives):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815104214
 
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Matsushima

Matsushima

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Mar 6, 2013
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Most mid-range motherboards should have at least 1 PCI slot. The PCI card is cheaper than buying a new HDD and optical drives as well. Here's an example of a PCI slot:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/PCI_Slots_Digon3.JPG
Here is a comparison of PCI and PCIe:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/PCIExpress.jpg
The topmost slot in the picture is rarely found in most motherboards. The shortest (PCIe x1) is mostly used for expansion cards, and the longest (PCIe x16) is mostly used for graphics cards.
 
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