Hi, is there any way I can add more IDE ports to my computer? I'm building a computer from scratch and it's basically done. Just want to know how I can add more IDE ports since I plan on adding multiple hard drives to this computer and with the current setup, there will be no more free IDE ports.

I did some searching before posting here and found some users mentioning a PCI IDE Controller card. I searched online and all I found are ATA/SATA/RAID Controller Cards instead. Are these the same? I know I had to use a controller card on my older Windows 98 desktop because it wouldn't recognize my huge hard drive, but not sure if the same applies here (if I only want some available IDE ports).

Also another quick question. Is the BLUE slot on the ribbon cable specifically for the blue IDE port on the motherboard? Can I use another blue one if the pins match the ones on the other available IDE port on the motherboard? I have two IDE ports on the mobo...one blue (for hard drive) and another white (for burner). I checked to make sure the pins are the same and they fit perfectly...

Thanks.

First, colored ribbons mean nothing. As long as a Ribbon cable as the right number of pins, and it's a flat ribbon, it will work just fine.

Did you know that on most motherboards, you can use 2 drives per IDE port on the motherboard?

With RAID controller cards, you can add alot more hard drives for a comparatively small amount of money. I have seen as much as a 12port RAID card, and it was only $700. Yea, that may sound like alot of money. But if you think about how much it would cost to buy specialty computers, or several computers and network them, it really is a cheaper method. RAID cards do have a disadvantage though. They only work good if all your hard drives on the card are the same size. (Preferably, same brand, same model) If you have different sized hard drives, it treats them all as if they are all equal to the smallest, assuming the one you get allows it. Another idea for getting more hard drives is etherraid. (check out coreraid) I do know of other methods, but they are more expensive. How many drives do you want in your system? Have you thought about just upgrading to a larger hard drive? or do you want more CD/DVD drives?

-YB

Thanks for the ribbon info...just wasn't too sure, but pins are correct

Yes, I know. Right now I have a hard drive and a DVD burner installed. But I will probably be adding more than 2 more IDE devices in shortly, so I want to plan ahead for this...

I don't really want to create a RAID setup. I just want to have more available IDE ports to plug my devices into. Yeah, I plan to get a bigger hard drive, but what I want to do mainly now is to use the other drives that I already have data on already. I will be working with them, so I just want to make it easier for now and just install them as slaves if possible. Unless there is a RAID method that doesn't require striping or mirroring? I always thought that's what RAID was used for...

If what you are thinking is just one more HDD, on top of the 4 IDE devices that'll be connected to the motherboard's embedded IDE ports, you may want to consider using an external HDD enclosure as an alternative to adding an IDE controller. It's a handy solution, too. If it is more than one more drive, forget it.

Should you choose to add an extra controller and drives inside the case, be careful your power supply has enough capacity on its 12V line.

If you don't have the HDD yet, I'd suggest you to use the SATA ports on you motherboard (it probably have 2 or 4 ports at least since it's a new pc).
One SATA can support 1 HDD. If you don't have enough SATA cards, you could also buy a SATA RAID PCI card (of even USB->SATA convertor, but that's going to be slow).

P.s. about the ribbons, there are 2 kinds of them, an 80 and 40 wire. The 80 is for PATA100/133 (for you HDD mainly). It's the ribbons with the finer cables.
The 40wire is for slower PATA standards, so it's perfect for a DVD.

Why go with IDE? I don't suppose you already have more than 4 hard disks sitting around from your old computer, and your motherboard should support at least 2, and most likely 4, SATA ports. that gives you a total (assuming you don't use a cd or dvd) of 8 hard disks you can attach, without going out and buying speciality hardware to expand. and why would you need more than that, considering also that the larger the hard drive size, the cheaper it is per gigabyte. you can find 400 GB hard disks for $250 or less. Get a couple of those and you won't need to expand for a good while.

Wutske and Grafitti said it, I'm going to say it again. If you build a new computer, use SATA, the price for the harddrives is nearly the same, the transferspeeds (SATA has two versions, 1 and 2, which are both faster than the IDE ports you are using now). Most new motherboards have built in SATA controllers for probably 4 drives, so you don't have to get extra controllers (probably).

I speak out of experience, because I have a computer now with 4 SATA Maxtor harddrives with 250 GB each and it works like a charm, transfers speeds are about 10-20 mb/sec higher than I had with my other pc's.

Another reason, having 4 ribbon cables makes a mess inside your case, obstructing the airflow. SATA data cables are really thin and small cables which are way better for airflow (which you are going to need if you plan on a lot of harddrives).

The thing is that I use a USB enclosure drive already and over time I have like 3 hard drives with data on them filled up already. The new PC already has a new hard drive (bought a IDE one already ). I should have went with SATA since it does have the ports for it. I just wasn't sure about it since I never used them before. I will get a SATA HDD for the sake of testing it out then... Transfer speeds are faster? Meaning from drive to drive? How about SATA to IDE HDD?

For the 40 wire cable, can it be used for a DVD burner (not regular DVD ROM)? I think both of the IDE cables I used are 80 wired (main HDD and DVD burner).

Thanks.

if you have 80 wire cables, I'd use them (imho, they look better ), but 40wires is fast enough (they are supposed the transfer up to 66Mbs, no dvd toy can get that fast ).

One thing I want to clear up, SATA aren't faster than PATA drives, that's just some marketing-brainwash slogan. It's quite normal that a new SATA drive is faster than an 'older' PATA drive, that's just how it goes.
SATA is useless for it's speed, since no hdd can go faster than 70Mb/s (that's a lot slower than the 300Mbs offered by SATA2), the only pros are NQC(SATA2 only btw), slimmer cables, cheap RAID and hotpluggable (it realy works, I do that all the time )

Dang... Didn't know that one, although it does seem to me that transferringspeeds between 2 new SATA drives is a tad higher that that of 2 new IDE's.

Anyway, atleast get round IDE cables since with so much harddrives it's going to be a bloody mess.

Since you already have IDE drives it's probably better to stick with them and just get extra IDE controllers.

Tip for next time : Consult before you buy, it saves money and you make sure you get the best stuff for your money