Motherboard problem

If a motherboard says that it has 2 ide slots for up to 4 devices does it mean that you can only have for example 2 cd/ dvd drives and 2 hard drives or does it just mean that you can only have 4 different kinds of devices like a cd/dvd drive, a hard drive, a card reader, and a fan monitor or something like that. I want to fill up my hard drive spaces and I need to know if I need a new motherboard. Thanks!

Having 2 IDE slots on your motherboard means your motherboard supports 2 IDE channels, each IDE channel can support 2 IDE devices (a master and a slave), for a total of 4 devices. An IDE device is basically anything with a 40-pin IDE connecter on it, ie. harddrives, cd/dvd-roms, cd/dvd burners, etc...

So I think the answer to your question is yes... You can hook 4 hardrives up to your motherboard, or 3 harddrives and a dvd-rom drive, or any combination thereof... As long as you can physically plug it into the motherboard it should work...