Most likely it's 2 SATA 2 ports.
It wouldn't be a SATA motherboard if you couldn't connect SATA drives to it.
To some extent yes, the motherboard does indeed determine what kind of hard drive to install. Most modern motherboards will have SATA ports for the hard drives. The SATA ports are small in size and are usually labeled as SATA1-SATA4 or however many the motherboard has. You can read it right on the board. Older motherboards, however, used to use PATA or IDE hard drives (PATA & IDE are the same thing but with two different names). An IDE port on a motherboard is about 3-4 times the size of a SATA port. The really old boards may not have the IDE port labeled, but most other motherboards will have the letters IDE (or PATA) written next to the IDE port. If you're referring to a motherboard from the last 5-7 years, the chances are that it has SATA ports. The best thing to do is to look at the motherboard.
SATA, or serial advanced technology attachment, connects the motherboard to hard drives and optical drives. This cable is inserted into the SATA slot on the motherboard.
use a different harddrive not using SATA such as an external USB or IEE1394 or SCSI or replace your motherboard with one with more SATA ports (4 ports is standard minimum)
Serial port is by far the fastest port. It is so fast that it is used in modern computer to connect hard drive to motherboard. Current generation of serial port is SATA 6Gpbs.
Harddrives will work as long as the motherboard supports the interface. SATA requires SATA. IDE requires an IDE port. Ram may or may not, that depends on the motherboard and if it supports the speed of your ram. USB drives should be fine. I'm not sure of the use of a memory card for computers...
If you plug a SATA 3.0 drive into a SATA 1.5 port on your motherboard, the drive should be able to function at a 1.5Gb/s transfer rate. Some drives require a jumper setting, while others natively recognize their allocated bandwidth and adjust accordingly.
Yes, SATA is used to connect the hard drives to the motherboard.
SATA cables.
Well it can vary between high speed SATA or high speed IDE hard drives. They all link into a port on the side or middle of a motherboard. an IDE hard drive is a hard drive with a long rectangular outlet or hookup to the motherboard. A SATA hard drive is a small but reliable plug to the motherboard about half an inch long.
Most modern CD/DVD drives and hard drives plug into SATA ports. It is a replacement for the older IDE connection type.
It depends on a motherboard. You can have 2 of them or all 6 of them Maybe there are motherboards with more than 6 ports but they are expensive. I need the location of SATA connections fopr a Dimension 4300 motherboard; hopely with a location graphic.