Capture with IDE to SATA card?
 

I'm looking to build a capture pc using an agp ati capture card. The problem I am facing is that I bought a motherboard that is ide only, and want to know how to best go about using it for my vhs digitization without dropping frames. I have two sata hdds and plan on using a startech adapter on each one to make them compatible with ide. Is this the right plan or should I get a pci sata adapter card for the hdds to run off of. Is it also wise to use the pci to sata to connect to an esata card for external transfer? Any help is greatly appreciated.


Below is the hardware I have.

Mobo: ECS P4M800Pro-M Socket 775
IDE to SATA Converter:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Pcie to sata card:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hmm. The spec sheets for both v1.0 and v2.0 of that board list (2) SATA ports? Looking at the pic of this board that's still up at the 'Egg, there's two SATA ports right beneath the system battery?

I'd either look closer at your board, or the board's model number. Something isn't right here.

Damn, I completely missed those 2 ports. I need 3, so what would you suggest? Put the OS hdd on ide or use a pci sata card for e sata?

I have a very similar late-model AGP w/SATA board and went with IDE for the system/software (C:\) drive. It only holds Windows, VirtualDub, WinDV and the Turtle Beach control panel, so IDE is plenty speedy and old BIOSs always seemed to play nicer with OS on IDE anyway. All captures go to SATA.

Except that:

The specs state 2x SATA ports, the pics show SATA data and power cabling, plus I can see them in the pictures, directly underneath the CMOS battery, which is directly underneath the IDE ports on that MB.

Per the above, shouldn't need to do either.

You're on the correct path. I'd prefer an Intel chipset over VIA, but you're most likely fine unless anyone knows of issues it has with the specific ATI capture workflow you'll be doing. Personally I use large SATA SSDs for the OS and initial captures, then copy to HDDs for archiving. But if you only have the 2x HDDs, that's fine.

Personally I prefer to power off the computer and swap drives when necessary (not very often, not a big deal). Stay as simple and direct as possible, whenever possible. E.g. using SATA ports direct on the MB 1st choice, PCI(e) card for SATA or NVMe 2nd choice. So 2x HDDs on MB SATA ports, check, easy.

What exactly are the HDDs? All bare, normal, internal SATA drives?