Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth (April 2000), Home Office Computing ran an article entitled, "Tool or Toy?" that looked at newfangled developments such as digital cameras and wireless modems and tried to distinguish genuine productivity needs from mere wants or trinkets.

It's still a valid question for home-based workers and telecommuters, many of whom buy their equipment themselves and operate on some of the tightest budgets in business computing. I'm tied down and stretched out on the needs-versus-wants rack, myself, regarding a replacement for my embarrassingly old Core i3 desktop, which on the one hand still works fine, but on the other hand, doesn't have so much as a USB 3.0 port. (Surprisingly, the "I need a new PC to use with my new flash drive" argument isn't working with my wife any better than "I need a new PC because the decals are wearing off the keyboard" did.)

Indeed, some of the "Should I buy X or Y?" questions I get aren't really about choosing between two graphics cards or inkjet printers or whatever. They're better phrased as "Should I buy X or Y or neither?" They're from people wondering whether to equip their home offices with a particular technology or skip it and invest in something else.

Let me give you a few examples and recommendations—technologies or products I think are worth the ante—and those that flunk the value test. If you disagree, I know you won't be shy about speaking up in the comments below.

Solid-State Storage

Definitely equip it. Second only, perhaps, to adding RAM, nothing perks up a PC's performance like replacing a spinning-platter hard drive with a no-moving-parts solid-state drive (SSD). New desktop motherboards with M.2 slots make installing one as easy as plugging in a USB flash drive. They still cost more per gigabyte than hard drives, and there are few solid-state equivalents to today's dirt-cheap external USB 3.0 hard drives (the Samsung T1 Portable is currently selling for under $200 for the 500GB model). But whether it's a desktop or an ultrabook, once you go solid-state, you never go back. For more, see SSD vs. HDD: What's the Difference?

3D

Skip it. Whether it's wildly awkward hand-waving and head-bobbing children's games, or laboriously scanning small physical objects into 2D software with the HP Sprout desktop, Intel's RealSense 3D camera is more trouble than it's worth. And unless you're really into waiting hours for plastic keychains and tchotchkes, 3D printers are far more costly than they're worth. Not ready for primetime? They're not ready for after-midnight cable access.

Speech Recognition

Somewhat to my own surprise, I say you should equip it. Today's small examples, like OS X's snippets of dictation and Windows 10's Cortana (pressing Win-C and saying, "Set a reminder for 2:30," for example), work quite well with no voice training or rehearsal required, and Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 has evolved into a polished dictation platform and genuine input alternative for all but the fastest typists. It's also come down to under $160, though the Professional package with all the bells and whistles is a steep $300.

A Better-than-Generic Mouse

You're not still using the cheap rodent that came with your PC, are you? Equip it with a better pointing device for both ergonomic comfort and a bit of extra productivity. Even if you can't afford to pay over $75 for the current status symbol, the Logitech MX Master, you can readily find a mouse with at least a couple of thumb buttons (I use mine for browser Back and Ctrl-Z undo) in addition to a scroll wheel.

An Optical Drive

Unless the computer is the only Blu-ray player in your house, skip it. It's almost 2016; you can use the cloud and external hard drives for backup.

A Digital Camera

Do you know what white balance and aperture priority are? If not—i.e., if you're just a point-and-shooter—skip it and use your smartphone camera. Today's phones are good enough to squeeze entry-level digicams out of the market for occasional flyer, presentation, or newsletter shots. On the other hand, if you're a real estate agent or other professional who works with images of places or products, equip it—get a good D-SLR or Micro Four-Thirds camera and practice ceaselessly with it, while remembering your third option. What's that? Hiring a professional photographer. I say that because I'm honest about my limitations; a real photographer can get better shots with an iPhone than I can with a D-SLR.

Dedicated Graphics

You don't fool me; I know you want a PC with discrete graphics to play games. Skip it if your work centers on office productivity or even light image editing, easily handled by the integrated graphics of today's CPUs. Equip it if you're a software developer, a computer-aided design (CAD) workstation user, or 3D renderer, in which case you want Nvidia's Quadro or AMD's FirePro lines instead of their respective GeForce or Radeon products for consumers.

Is there technology you can't live without? If we were all ruthlessly Puritan about distinguishing needs from wants, would Apple still be in business? Make your own value judgments in the comments or at homeoffice.eric@gmail.com.