IDE hard drives connect to the system through a 40-pin ribbon cable.
PCI cards allow you to add features or connect new devices to your computer. Some modern motherboards do not include a port for IDE hard drives; they only support SATA hard disk drives (HDD). A SATA-to-IDE PCI card will allow you to add an IDE port to your computer.
History
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) was designed in 2003, 17 years after Western Digital created Parallel ATA (IDE). IDE reigned as the technological standard for almost two decades, but SATA overtook IDE due to its faster transfer speeds shortly after its release.
Requirements
IDE hard drives require a 40-pin ribbon cable and a four-pin peripheral power cable to communicate with a computer. The 40-pin cable connects to the rear of the hard drive and the IDE port on the motherboard. The four-pin peripheral power cable travels from the Power Supply Unit (PSU) and plugs into the proper connector on the back of the HDD.
Configuration
Connect two IDE devices to a SATA motherboard by installing a SATA-to-IDE PCI card in your computer. The PCI card installs into an expansion slot and the IDE devices connect to the IDE slot on the card.
Tags: hard drives, your computer, 40-pin ribbon, 40-pin ribbon cable, four-pin peripheral