[rdl]

It's certainly possible to develop with less than top quality tools, but when a developer costs $100k-$200k/yr (loaded cost), spending $10-20k on tools vs. $0-2k is pretty reasonable, if it either provides a bump in performance (and I believe it does), or just makes the developer happier.

If you go on-site with clients, it's pretty sketchy to have a taped together Gateway 2000 vs. a MacBook Pro/Air, too.

I'd be concerned if I took my car to a mechanic who was using chinese crap tools, or went to a doctor with duct tape holding every piece of equipment together.

Probably one of the better things to spend money on is having entire spare hardware lying around in case someone's laptop is stolen or fails.