HDD GURU FORUMS

So, I've been looking through a lot of documents on the best way to connect older PATA / IDE drives to modern SATA only motherboards. After a few months of browsing, I came to the conclusion for the best methods of legacy hardware connection (please correct me if I am wrong, you guys are the real pros here):
Worst: USB (Host) to device (PATA / IDE, SATA) bridge
Acceptable: PCI or PCIe (Host) to device (PATA / IDE) bridge
Best: SATA (Host) to device (PATA / IDE) bridge (bi-directional if possible)
Overkill: Wasting $6K on a PC3000 just to use it as a PCIe to PATA device for average everyday use

Okay obviously the last one is a total joke but I did get some info on the PC3K method of obtaining PATA / IDE drive info (again, correct me if I am wrong, I'm a total novice). The PC3K uses the 88SA8052 chip. After doing even more homework as you guys call it, I also came up with a list of chips for connecting a SATA (Host) to device (PATA / IDE)
Best: Marvell 88SA8052
2nd best: Marvell 88SA8040
The average: JMicron 20330
Avoid: SunplusIT SPIF223A
Would this be a good list of what to get? I try to find a PCB which does SATA (Host) to PATA / IDE, but all I can find is PATA / IDE (Host) to SATA device. Is there a good converter out there that is bi-directional and has the 88SA8052 chip?

I apologize in advanced for a potential lack of detail, the page refreshed on me and I lost a lot of what I was going to post.

Spildit wrote:If the computer does have something like PCI expansion ports buy something like this ?

DSCN0595.JPG

+1
I think the PCI or PCIe (Host) to device (PATA / IDE) bridge should be considered best. It is the equivalent of native hardware.

An excellent SATA-to-PATAdevice bridge chip is the Silicon Image SiI3811. It is used on the Rosewill RC-204 bridge board. I've been using a few of these for over 10 years, in conjunction with Genica GN-210 mobile racks. The beauty is that with the 3811 truly making the IDE drive look like a SATA drive to the OS (Linux & Windows), full hot-swapping is flawless! (and painless--no rebooting)

However, for what it sounds like you want to do, the bridge board might not be ideal, since the board attaches directly to the IDE connection on the PATA device. I'd prefer not to attach/remove the board from each drive I wanted to access. That was the beauty of that mobile rack. The bridge board was always fixed to the rack, and it is easy enough to swap drives in the tray.

I doubt either the RC-204 or the GN-210 will be easy to find nowadays, but good luck. [Note: stay away from Monoprice's PID#327! Pre-2010, it used a functional 3811 (licensed by SunPlus from SiI). But, since has changed to the SPIF223A.]