A stationary PC with 2 GB RAM and 2.2 GHz processor was supplied wirh a IDE to SATA adaptor (10 USD), which made it possible to install a SSD-disk of 128 GB.
Windows 8.1 Pro (productkey costed 9 USD) was installed and 32-bits as it consumes less RAM. After that I installed Linux Mint 21.1 Xfce as it consumes less memory.
Linux Mint was slightly better than Windows 8.1, but it could be caused by Linux Mint had a driver for the Radeon videocard and Windows 8.1 used a generic driver.
As I intend to use Windows only a couple of times per month I can use this old PC for surfing and email without having to buy a new one.
Motherboard: Asrock K8Upgrade VM800 from 2005 micro-ATX
AMD Athlon 64 +3200 2.2 GHz
RAM: 2 GB maximal for this motherboard
SSD-disk Liteonit LCS-128M6S 128 GB (works with an adaptor IDE to SATA. Normally this motherboard does not work with SSD:s via SATA-ports)
GPU ATI Radeon 9550 128 MB
Tested operative systems:
Windows 8.1 Pro (bought product key for 10 USD) 32-bits as it uses less RAM than 64-bits
Linux Mint 21.1 Xfce (uses less RAM than other versions of 21.1)
In Windows 8.1 you need to install Firefox, because Explorer is very slow and a CPU hog due its a file program also.
Linux Mint
RAM 34 % CPU 5%
Firefox 46 % 8 %
Firefox + viska.se 54 % 10 %
Windows 8.1 Pro
RAM 31 % CPU 1 %
Firefox 41 % 1 %
Firefox + viska.se 48 % 10 %
Windows is slightly lower in RAM consumption than Linux Mint, but CPU was easier maxed when Firefox was used probably caused as Windows used a generic videodriver for old videocards whereas Linux used a radeon driver.
A videocard with a Windows 8.1 driver and more RAM would probably speed up Windows here.
A SSD disk will speed up a PC with less RAM as the swap or page file will be faster than on ordinary harddrive. However, SSD will not be as fast as RAM.