Yes, you can use just 1 SATA drive on this board. It has 2 SATA ports and 2 IDE ports (for a total of 4 IDE devices). Yes you can mix and match IDE and SATA drives (have 1 SATA drive and 2 IDE Hard Drives plugged in). Bios settings, i doubt anyone can give you because your hardware is unknown. As for ram, pretty much any should do, try to get some decent DDR-400 stuff (or value if you wish, but it might take a little more to set it up, im not familiar with these boards at all) Your best bet would be to get the most updated drivers from the DFI site for your board.