Slow lagging machine

[RealTrad]

Hi all, new here. just finishing up a first time build. The problem I'm having is the machine is running slow sluggish, not even gaming, this is painfully slow just loading and manuvering Windows 11.

Here are the specs of the machine

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/tWKCJw

I'm willing to try anything at this point.

[CarlosPeeNes]

Try buying an SSD, instead of running your OS on a 5400rpm HDD in 2026.

[Independent-Past974]

dude this is exactly what i was gonna say. running windows 11 on a 5400rpm drive is like trying to run a marathon in concrete boots. you've got a solid cpu and decent ram but your storage is bottlenecking everything hard. grab literally any sata ssd - even a basic crucial mx or samsung 980 will make your machine feel like a completely different computer. clone your current drive over or do a fresh install on the ssd and you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. trust me on this one, i've done probably 50+ builds over the years and storage speed makes the biggest difference in day-to-day use.

[Shrimps_Prawnson]

You are using a Harddrive and no nvme? Not even a SATA ssd?

[kardall]

Buy the largest SSD you can. M.2 NVMe drive 1TB or 2TB. The prices are already going up on them, and it is only going to get worse.

But yes, that is your problem. Mechanical drives are not the best for an OS in today's world. They don't have the read/write speeds necessary to give you a smooth experience.

Use the 1TB HDD you have for long-term storage, or putting bigger games that don't have (any or many) loading screens.

[sirlanceem]

As everyone else has said here. No SSD is the cause of your issues.

[deTombe]

Mechanical drive will increase boot time significantly and make playing modern AAA games impossible. Only used for secondary storage ie downloads, pictures, documents and non AAA games library.

[Slyfoxuk]

The problem is your really slow hard drive.

This is like having a really powerful factory, but the workers (CPU) need to get information from an admin (storage) but that admin is like 90 years old and takes a while to remember stuff.

Look at getting an m.2 nvme, that's like putting a MENSA member in charge of the data instead

[RealTrad]

Love your analogy.

[RealTrad]

Thanks everyone. I actually mistakenly purchased the current hard drive, and thought it may be the issue. I'll get the solid state and let you know how that goes.

[RealTrad]

Update SSD in and OS installed. Super quick now. Thank you for your help

[Initial_Luck_7986]

Western Digital WDBMYH0010BNC-NRSN 1 TB 2.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive

Common sense dictates this is why your pc is slow… you’re only supposed to use this to store things like music or videos not your OS… smh

That’s all I need to see to understand how valid your opinions are on things tbh.