It's always the HDD.
My in-laws have a pretty old computer. I'm not joking, the PC has an old Intel VIIV processor (from 2005... 14 years old) with 2 GB of RAM. They can't afford to purchase a new computer right now, so I bought them a 240 PNY SSD from Best Buy for Christmas. I installed the SSD, did a clean install of Windows 7, and it literally gave the computer a second life. The SSD is capped at SATA II speeds (no SATA III and of course no nVME), and even still the computer feels great for what it is.
SSDs are the single largest performance upgrade that computers have seen in the past 15 years. It's a night and day difference.
It makes computers that were unusable, or on the brink of unusability suddenly a computer that could not only be usable, but like, not awful at all. As long as you don't game too heavy or play modern games. It breathes so much new life into systems.
If you have to pick between a computer with a 2TB HDD or a computer with 256GB SSD, go for the SSD. Always.
My in-laws have a pretty old computer. I'm not joking, the PC has an old Intel VIIV processor (from 2005... 14 years old) with 2 GB of RAM. They can't afford to purchase a new computer right now, so I bought them a 240 PNY SSD from Best Buy for Christmas. I installed the SSD, did a clean install of Windows 7, and it literally gave the computer a second life. The SSD is capped at SATA II speeds (no SATA III and of course no nVME), and even still the computer feels great for what it is.
SSDs are the single largest performance upgrade that computers have seen in the past 15 years. It's a night and day difference.
It makes computers that were unusable, or on the brink of unusability suddenly a computer that could not only be usable, but like, not awful at all. As long as you don't game too heavy or play modern games. It breathes so much new life into systems.
If you have to pick between a computer with a 2TB HDD or a computer with 256GB SSD, go for the SSD. Always.