[jyl]

And what's the view on SSD vs HDD for this application?

Old internal HDD is 320 GB. 2010 Mac Mini takes a 2.5" SATA 2 drive.

500 GB SSD (Crucial) would cost about $180 locally, $155 online, would still have to keep libraries on external HDD, perhaps faster launching apps, would it be more reliable than a HDD?

1 TB HDD 5400 rpm 2.5" (WD Blue) would cost about $70 locally, $55 online, could move libraries to internal HDD to simplify backup and maybe improve speed of loading libraries?

This is the family computer, lives in the kitchen, mostly used for Music, Netflix, Safari. Not used for anything "heavy duty".