yes you need a certain type for a certain mobo. The interface is the hookup for the hdd to your mobo... the most often used is the IDE ATA hookup. But Serial ATA is a faster product with a chiplike hookup. If look on your motherboard you will most likely see either a pronged hookup for your hard drive (if you see that, it is most likely a IDE hook up.). otherwise if it looks kinda like a agp slot (or something like that [more of a chip looking deal]) it is most likely a Serial ATA. you can prolly do some more research on google.com to see the exact differences between the hookups.