New computer help

[fazersharp]

I wouldn't bother with an SSD to be honest.  We build AAA video games for PS4/XB1/PC etc and our PC's are pretty cutting edge but we don't bother with SSD drives due to reliability and they just don't offer any real performance other than load times but HDD load times are hardly a problem especially for a home machine. 

Your current PC spec looks fine for what you say you want to use it for, maybe it just needs a good cleanup, maybe a new gfx card and hdd, fresh install of windows etc    CPU makes little difference and anything with over 8G+ is more or less the same be that 8GB or 16GB.

So it sounds like I should steer clear of SSD although the pc never has much on it to lose as it was only 40GB hd so never kept much on it and always saved to DVD any photos.
So a SSD will just make start up quicker --- I thought it made everything quicker.

Also just to recap the current pc is
10 year old + HP D530
P4 2.4GHz 
3gb ddr pc2700 166MHz
40gb HD
onboard graphics
xp pro (not sure how much ram is available)

Thats the family pc for general --- not a lot, but find things like the google maps painfully slow and it randomly restarts -- which of course is my fault cause its old and its broken and Im too tight to buy another one :uhuh
(only one of those statements is correct)