You're both pretty much spot on. Generally there was two IDE controllers (which each provide one connector) per motherboard, and a master and slave drive for each controller. SATA is definitely a step forward, but I've had more trouble with SATA cables and connectors than I ever had with IDE. Sure airflow is better, and cable management is so much nicer, but SATA cables have given me so much grief. With IDE you had two grades of cable: 40 pin and 80 pin, and you could tell the difference just based on the cable appearance. With SATA cables manufacturers cheaped out on early generation cables, so they ran poorly on newer drives. I've had SATA cables just stop working, the cable connector has just snapped, and I've even had the plastic tab from a SATA drive break off. Never had an IDE connector break to the point of unusability.