Even QLC SSD's are leaps and bounds better than hard drives. There's not much reason to have HDD's at all, aside of offline backup/cold storage backup. (e.g. backup and then throw in drawer or fireproof safe, or offsite)... Remember, the hard drive is always the slowest part of the computer. If you can afford the software to fill them with, you can afford an SSD. Even if it's just a 'Silicon Power' sata SSD, doesn't matter, it's still going to be much better performing than a hard drive. Having a newer processor (from anything north of x58 series), and hooking it to a hard drive, you might as well run a core 2 duo buddy. You will enjoy the greener pasture and everytime you hit a load screen and it's gone quickly, you will thank yourself. That said keep old HDD's for backups.
I got a third SSD now, I have 3 now, I still have the 1TB HDD for games that aren't a huge open world or with big levels, things like that or massive storage.
I believe you'll find much better performance and less hitching in your future - even if the 100% usage pegging is Windows' fault. I wish you the best on it. I have a pair of 2tb hard drives, and a pile of smaller misc sized ones that I use to hold Steam game installs, and downloaded files like drivers and misc software. This way I don't murder my data cap every time I go on and download a game (unless I purchase a new one, but I don't get many new games just a dozen or so a year, usually whatever is on sale). Just make sure whatever you buy, they have a good return policy (or buy it off Amazon, they are slave labor camps for the employees, but the return policy is good for you and I). This way if you DO happen upon a bad one or one that just doesn't seem as advertised / refuses to work with your system, or just gets homesick, you can send it back home If your just using them to hold the good old 'piles of files' you just need or otherwise just can't bring yourself to delete, QLC or Generic-brand drives will be just fine. (for others reading this - For the OS though I'd go with TLC at worst-case as MLC is hard to find these days). As another poster mentioned, 8gb is 'enough' but sometimes not always. Something to think about (hint: used RAM rarely fails and is often very cheap). Best of luck bud!
Dual Channel RAM. Also, no offense but did you read what I posted? My Pagefile is on both of my SSD's, the HDD only limits itself to read stuff.
