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From what I understand all HDs are now Sata II and newer motherboards will only have one IDE connection for the optical drive.
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Um no.
I just took
this old drive that I've had for 3 years (you can buy it today) and put it on
this motherboard (note two IDE channels good for up to four IDE devices, as described above) with an Athlon X2 CPU.
Modern and backwards compatible!
EDIT: Cable Select FTW.