I presently have an ASUS P4C800 Deluxe Motherboard with a socket 478 3.2 GB Pentium Processor.I am in the process of speculating upon what hardware to purchase for an upgrade, and how soon to do it. (LGA775 Socket for Core 2 duo plus PCI Express x 16)My present motherboard provides one PATA and two IDE ports. This allows me to have a combination of one pair of SATA in addition to one pair of IDE hard drives in a four drive Raid 0 configuration. The two SATA HD's are connected to my Serial ATA ports, while the two IDE HD's are connected to the PATA port with a conventional two place IDE ribbon cable. This has worked very well for two or three years. I also implement a large backup hard drive pluse a Read and Write DVD/CDR on one IDE port, and a CDROM on the second IDE Port.The problem is that almost all of the new motherboards for an upgrade only provide either a single PATA/IDE port, or a PATA port and one IDE port, which negates one or more pieces of hardware. However, most of the new boards also provide more than two SATA ports.My question is do the "Best Connectivity SATA to IDE Dangle Serial ATA to IDE Adaptors" or equal work well? This would allow me to connect all four of my current Raid 0 implemented drives (2 SATA + 2 IDE)to the SATA ports. Is there any significant negative factor to this configuration or does it operate equal to four SATA drives (or my previous configuration)?Any input would be appreciated.Respectfully:RTH

Its been a while since i looked into those adapters but last time i checked they were almost as much as a 250gb drive is now at $59. Hopefully they have come way down in price. As far as throughput, thats a hard thing to guess. The adapters manufacturer website would probably have those numbers as far as whether or not you will lose speed by using the adapter. I would probably just buy 2 new sata hard drives myself for maximum efficiency, especially if the adapters were approaching 50% of the cost of a new drive. Drives are so cheap these days anyway. My local microcenter is selling 250gb WD sata drives for $59 after rebate and newegg always sells them for mid $70's.

Thanks for the reply:The adapters are as low as $12.00 now. In fact I think I saw someone with them for $9.99 in an earlier search.Again, thanks for your help.RTH