Hi :)
For most people, no real performance issues will be noticed with HDDs.
Applications are cached in memory during normal operation, for programs that
you're running regularly. So if you're usually running a browser and an email
client, maybe a few terminals, then you won't really notice any speed issues
with HDDs.
SSDs help in terms of boot times, and for non-cached operations (where data
is being directly read from or written to the disk, constantly). SSDs are
also lighter on power usage, so battery life would be higher.
If storage is a priority, then most 1TB HDDs should do nicely. Minifree sells
Libreboot T400 if you're interested; with 1TB HDD, it's currently 248 EUR:
https://minifree.org/product/libreboot-t400/
The best of both worlds is SSD+HDD. The T400 can have 2 storage drives (2nd
drive goes in the DVD slot, replacing the DVD drive). So if you wanted extra
speed and more storage space, that would be my advice. Minifree also sells
that :)
~Leah
