I don’t see a big deal with using hdd I’ve got a dell inspiron win7 from 2010. Ssd and extra ram can help speed things up.
you’re not intending to use it for any high end stuff anyway and either hdd or ssd are cheap enough a fresh install can help clear out clutter. A image of your hdd or a spare wouldn’t hurt, reinstallation can be a pain if you lose the original software or backup partition.

Everyone is recommending SSD's. You are asking for an opinion but it looks like you are already set on mechanical drives. Just buy a mechanical drive already. Why do you need anyone to convince you othewise?

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-03-11, 17:58:

I regularly use a pimped out T440p (fastest 4th gen i7 I could fit, maxed out ram, several SSDs) when I need to do onsite work.

I was recently asked to recycle a 2011 MacBook Pro. Lovely 15" display, great condition. So, I pulled the HDD out, doubled the RAM (didn't have spare sticks for 16GB), put Mint on the fresh (ok you got me, I found it in a junk pile in the office. I think it's from about 2015? Not sure) SSD; I would have gone RHEL, but they deliberately break older Macs. It's now a - well, maybe not lightning fast; but at least wildfire. Tornado? Some other fast natural disaster anyway.

Any machine with at least 4 threads (2c4t is fine, for example - but any CPU with 2c2t is either so old or so cheap it's not worth bothering with as a current-day machine. I'm obviously not criticising retro builds here), AVX1, 8GB PC3 and an SSD is a viable daily driver. High def video (VLC), web browsing (though you'll be happier with ublock Origin, performance wise), light gaming: Undertale, Rimworld, BG1-ID2, Stardew, Katawa Shoujo - there's plenty of interactive entertainment that'll work fine, that's just a handful of what's on my Toughbook.

Now if you don't mind, I have a 1080p h265 10bit ac3 video to finish watching on my ridiculous fanless dinosaur.