SSD drive, boot drive for Dimension 4600i

I have a good functioning Dell Dimension 4600. I´m wondering about two reasons to try to install a SSD drive to that computer.  First, if the current IDE hard drive crashes, I would like to have some backup, and secondly maybe better performance. 4600 has two 7-pin ATA connectors. Is it possible to buy almost any serial ATA SSD-disk and get it work? Is it possible to make it the boot-drive?

Anyone using SSD on Dimension 4600i? Or any other Dell having the primary HD as IDE-drive?

regards, Rami.