1.A - Build my own.2.D - every 2-3 years. I've slowed down since I've had kids !3.B - Pretty important. Not had a SSD personally yet, but I do know they speed I/O significantly unless you have some really expensive RAID setup. "Performance" itself though could be hindered by CPU, RAM, I/O (SSD helps here), or video card depending on the application.4. Not Canadian (note that I didn't use 'eh', beer, or maple leaves anywhere in my post!)