Top 5 salaried employees, not using TOP

This question is related to a previous question, How to find the first 5 highest salaried employees in each department (25 April 2001). Using the TOP keyword, the answer was --

select * 
  from employee X 
 where salary in 
       (select top 5 salary 
          from employee 
         where dept = X.dept 
       order by salary desc) 
 order by dept, salary desc

Without using the TOP keyword, we resort to the more generic rank subquery --

select * 
  from employee X 
 where 5 > 
       (select count(*) 
          from employee 
         where dept = X.dept 
           and salary > X.salary) 
 order by dept, salary desc

The subquery counts the number of rows in the same department that have a salary greater than the salary of the row under consideration in the outer query; if this number is less than 5, then the row under consideration is in the top 5 (for that department).