Try it. With an SSD in a USB 2/3 enclosure. You're probably getting one anyway for use with the other system, so you can experiment with it on this one (or on a USB2 port/hub on the other one). The performance may surprise you.

Just getting an SSD in there will speed things up immensely, reducing seek times to zero. Most mechanical drive I/O delays are due to seek times, so.. smile

Cheers