Fresh Windows install on a new SSD boot drive...UGH!!

That will be fine. ANY SATA drive is fine for samples. Most of the plugs you will use - just read the sample to RAM anyway…it’s not like you will be hitting the hard drive all day long.

I would not tho - have samples and be recording to the same drive. This can lead to bus contention (where your sample reading is pre-empting your recording etc) - since all this action is going back and forth down the same wire to the same disk.

At the minimum - record to one drive (preferably your best available) and stash samples, loops etc on another. Keeping these separate will always benefit in the long run.

VP