Yesterday I wanted to see if I could make a program that checks if a word is a palindrome. Open a text editor, a terminal and a browser. Done.
For example I remember when I bought one of the early LCD monitors, using expensive CRTs until then. The difference was huge, suddenly I could code for 10 hours straight without feeling tired at all!
On the other hand I kept away from SSDs for more than I should. Again, such a huge productivity boost by making my computer so much responsive that immediately I thought “why didn't I buy this 2-3 years ago”.
A more recent example, couple years ago I moved and at the first couple months hadn't set up my home office, so I started using my laptop's keyboard and just kept doing it. I thought it was ok until recently I switched back to an external keyboard. My typing improved tremendously, much faster, less errors, actually blind typing all the time now. Again, inertia didn't let me realize what I was losing all these years.
But I also think it is important to start from lesser tools and upgrade as you go. A novice most of the time can't really appreciate a professional tool and as many people wrote in other comments, obsessing too much with the tools at the start can hinder the path towards your real goal.