>"A lot of times, waiting for the computer to finish feels like a micro-break that saves up energy for my next deep thought process."

As an ISV I buy my own hardware so I do care about expenses. I can attest that to me waiting for computer to finish feels like a big irritant that can spoil my programming flow. I take my breaks whenever I feel like and do not need a computer to help me. So I pay for top notch desktops (within reason of course).