Replaced the old SATA disk with a SATA SSD—massive speed improvement. 

The setup took some time: clean Windows 10 install, then upgraded to Windows 11 using a CPU/TPM workaround for this older machine. Running great now.

Swapped the old SATA hard disk for a 256GB SATA SSD (Used SK Hynix)— picked it up from Discount Computer Depot for $38.97.