SSD for an IDE Laptop...?

[MasterTactician]

I have an old Dell XPS Gen 1 laptop that's really suffering from its 4200rpm HDD. From my searches, it doesn't seem like there are very many IDE SSDs around worth buying. Either the controller is bad or they are vastly overpriced. I know I won't get much improvement in transfer speeds before I max out the IDE interface, but the boost in random read/writes would breathe new life into this old beast, which is really only used for work apps and internet browsing now.

So, would a SATA SSD work with an IDE-to-SATA adapter without any issues? I was thinking an Intel X-18M when it's available (or similar 1.8" SSD) and an adapter would probably be able to fit in a 2.5" bay easy enough. Has anyone tried this (IDE to SATA SSD)?

 

[Syntax Error]

Those IDE-to-SATA adapters usually require external power connectors (the floppy kind) and laptops won't have one.

If there are IDE-to-SATA adapters that don't need that, YMMV at the very least.