i just got a NEW gateway computer and have been trying to find out about something. it has a 640gb SATA hdd and only has SATA connector slots (or whatever you CALL them) to ADD other hdd's or optical drives. i have 2 IDE hdd's and an IDE optical drive i want to add to this tower without having to use external enclosures since im only limited to 6 usb ports total and only 2 of them on the front. i want to avoid USING a usb hub if possible. is what i need called an "IDE to SATA cable/converter" or "SATA to IDE cable/converter"? i'm guessing it's the first. or are they the same thing? i've seen the things that u just plug into your motherboard and then just plug the IDE hdd into it. would that be all i need? what about the power cable? thanks in advance.here you go, sir


http://www.cooldrives.com/serial-ata---ata-atapi-ide-interface-adapter.html

Plug the adapter into the back of your IDE drives, and then use a SATA data cable to connect the IDE drive to the SATA controllers (conectors) on the motherboard.thanks for the reply. from that link you sent me, it says the IDE drive becomes a SATA drive but do you know if that means it will run at SATA speeds or at least faster then traditional IDE speeds? also, if i use this for my IDE optical drive will it still run at least at the speeds it does as just an IDE drive and maybe faster also? thanks again.Quote from: munkytown on June 05, 2009, 03:41:27 PM

thanks for the reply. from that link you sent me, it says the IDE drive becomes a SATA drive but do you know if that means it will run at SATA speeds or at least faster then traditional IDE speeds? also, if i use this for my IDE optical drive will it still run at least at the speeds it does as just an IDE drive and maybe faster also? thanks again.