This may be obvious to some but given the fact I have a lot of other things going in the background (not fishing for sympathy, just giving context) I was getting tired of my computer running slow, starting up slowly etc.
I did the usual stuff of cleaning the hard drive, limiting start-up stuff etc but it was still doing my head in.
Admittedly it's an 8 year old machine but still reasonably powerful enough to expect it to run faster than it does (i5-4590 CPU 3.30GHz, 12gb RAM, 1tb HD)
Given that I use an iPad for 90% of my job, another for general home use as well as the iPhone for other bits I wasn't inclined to get a new PC or spend that much money upgrading. So for the best part of a year I've either avoided using it, grinned and bore it or just kept it in the back of my mind but when it got to the point where it was affecting my son being able to do his homework I decided enough was enough.
What was the obvious answer? An SSD. Bought a reconditioned 240gb one from ebay, swapped it over from the 1tb HDD (thanks to jaymoss for his suggestion of
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Docking-Tcc...rs%2C71&sr=1-9 to connect it to my boy's Xbox btw)
Now my machine is running perfectly. It'll never be a top-end gaming machine but it's enough for my boy's YouTubing and other general use.