SATA has replaced PATA completely across the en¬tire range of motherboards. What matters is how many SATA connectors does the motherboard support? That will determine how many HDDs you can Apart from the regular SATA port, some boards have additional SATA ports operated through a different chipset actually use with the board. Four is generally the norm, but we have seen boards supporting six as well, which is pretty cool. RAID is common across the en¬tire range of motherboards and ensures an extra layer of stability. So while buying a motherboard it's important to consider whether your motherboard has support for RAID or not, as it ensures data safety and enhances performance.

One important thing that we noticed recently was the inability to load as via your CD ROM drive which is connected to an IDE. Some IDEs don't allow you to boot up your system; you would need to connect an external drive via USB for being able to load your as on to the HDD. This is a big demerit and should be avoided at all costs. Read the specifications carefully and check whether the motherboard's IDE supports booting or not.