Will a new HDD speed up my PC?

[rpeopler]

I've been using the same PC for the past 5 years (have only upgraded the power supply, motherboard and GPU), and have noticed gradual slowdown, especially in the past year. My PC will occasionally freeze during browsing, and is slow when using the Start Menu. I've attributed this to likely be my HDD, since I've been using the same one since I built my PC.

My specs include:

Intel Core i7-3770k @ 4.0 GHz
Gigabyte GTX 970 FTW Edition
8 GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM (can't remember the manufacturer... not a leading brand)
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 Motherboard
1TB 7200RPM Seagate HDD
Windows 10 Home 64-Bit (not a clean install, simply upgraded from Windows 7 64-Bit)

Would I see a decent benefit by purchasing a new HDD? Should I get another 7200RPM drive or an SSD? Thanks!

 

[rgd1101]

SSD

 

[elbert]

I suggest a good quality SSD.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $97.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-14 17:58 EDT-0400

 

[velocityg4]

An SSD can make a big difference. A new HDD won't make much difference. Maybe a little as platter density has increased.

Is your CPU usage at 100%?
How about RAM usage? During regular usage does all your RAM get used?

If it's been five years it may be time for a fresh install of Windows. Have you cleaned up your computer? Removing junk software and junk startup items.

In general a RAM upgrade and replacing a HDD with an SSD makes a computer feel like new. Even i3 systems feel faster than an i7 in everyday usage if the i3 is on SSD and the i7 is on HDD. True the i7 is faster in compute intensive tasks. In everyday usage you are frequently reading and writing a lot of small files. Which is where an SSD shines.

 

[USAFRet]

5 years...gradual slowdown.

A new drive will seem 'faster' because you will have probably done a clean install on it.
But it was the clean install that did it, not the new drive.

2 options
1. A fresh OS install can work wonders. Get rid of all the old cruft.
2. An SSD. Highly recommended.