PCI is a bus (you can have PCI video cards, PCI network cards, PCI modems, etc..) See
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/pci.htm for more info..
IDE is an interface type (another would be SCSI ). You can have IDE Harddrives, CD Drives, DVD Drives, and even the old IDE zip drives. See
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/pci.htm for more info
RAID is a standard of organizing data across multiple drives (see earlier post for a link with RAID info)
They are different things. Don't confuse the issue.
so.. going back to your box label:
The controller gets plugged into an open PCI slot on your motherboard.
Your IDE Harddrives get connected to your Controller which is plugged into an open PCI slot on your motherboard.
Your Software provided with the Controller is used to create a RAID volume using the IDE Harddrives connected to your controller plugged into an open PCI slot on your motherboard.
My last words on the issue:
If what you want is to get another drive letter for your to run a manual or scheduled backup/copy of your data, don't bother with RAID.
Punkychan said:
I have 2 now but would like to put in 2 more.I have the usb though, but not so practical...
Assuming you only have 2 devices on your built-in controllor now(I'm assuming this is a HardDrive and a CD/DVD of some sort - ie: a "c:" drive and a "d:" drive) you can should be able to put in an extra harddrive or two without buing a new controller. You won't have RAID, but seeing as you don't know what it is anyway, you probably won't miss it.
If you already bought this card and you really, really, really want to use it, you can still use it.
Just plug the card into an open PCI slot, connect your drives to the card with the ribbon cables, connect the power cables to the hard drives. Power up, install the drivers but don't setup anything with RAID.