Originally Posted by
FrankHudson
I'd think that the regular rear Ortliebs would hold even a 17" laptop. Weight would no issue for those bags. You could buy an "sleeve" (a padded envelope bag) and use that inside the pannier. You could probably even fit a regular laptop bag for large laptops inside the regular rear Ortlieb pannier.
Mechanical hard drives park their heads when shut down, so it's not really a big deal to have them in a bag unless you're planning some radical riding. However I'd highly recommend the SSD just for the performance advantages---they're a huge improvement.
Thanks for not making me explain that about how hard drives work.
Also, this computer is not just for graphics work. That's part of it, but not everything. Having the company buy another one, or me remoting into it from home, etc etc are not options.
Either I will commute with it in a pannier or I will not commute at all. If I can set something up with an acceptable level of risk against damage, short of a high speed wreck, then that should work.
I don't think I'm the first person to ever bike commute with a laptop.
Thanks all.