The Natural Philosopher wrote:
I think the cutoff for SSD is when the motherboard don't do SATA.

There are PATA-SATA adaptors, but it can get a bit mechanically messy. I
fitted an SSD to a 2004 laptop with one - had to select the adaptor
carefully to fit, and take the case off the SSD. It made a massive
difference.

There are also PATA SSDs, but that tends to be random-Chinese-brand-off-ebay
territory. Some of them used really terrible flash, but I hope they have now
improved. Price/GB is much worse than SATA typically.

Theo