Disk / Solid State Storage or not (screen loading issue)

I've been playing for an elapsed 2 days or so on the early release (PC version).

The good news is, I have noticed very few bugs. Only 1 screen freeze, some issues I have with skill names and how skills are presented, and a couple of minor questing issues. I have created multiple characters so I have not reached act 2 yet.

HOWEVER-- Every time I go into an area or do anything that requires "loading" a screen, it takes a long time, often over a minute. I have researched this using the Performance monitor on Windows Task Manager and have found that it is my disk that is completely bottle-necked. On a screen load the disk activity shoots to 100% and stays there until several seconds after the screen appears. Then it drops to near zero as it has completed loading, and I have little or no issues after that while playing a zone. I checked with another player and they are using an SSD and have no issues. I do not have an SSD. But it is a decent drive, a Western Digital WD10EZEX 6GB/s. During a load the disk activity is pegged at 100%, but the response time is good and the read rate is well below the capacity. So, if I had to guess, this is analogous to a formula 1 sports car that is told to drive from New York to LA but stop at every 7-Eleven on the way. In other words the disk seems to be doing a very very large number of very very small reads. I am hoping this issue (or design) is changed for full release, otherwise I might have to buy an SSD just to enjoy this free game. Thoughts?