A few days ago, I installed Kali Linux on my HDD in my Inspiron 1545 (a laptop from 2009), and I have never known it to run this fast on a hard drive. I also have an SSD that I use to run Windows 10 on my laptop, but I'm not that motivated to switch back after using Kali for a few days.
I use this Matrix-inspired image for my home screen, though I might change it at some point.