Originally Posted by
treadtread
Do you *need* to carry that beast? Leave it in office, and use software that allows you to make a safe connection to that laptop from home (vpn + windows remote desktop should suffice on windows, or vpn + vnc/nomachine for linux). If you don't have a home computer, buy that instead of panniers
A remote connection is an OK solution for some work but not others, - probably not graphic intensive work which is what the OP is doing. I carry a laptop as well and while I wouldn't want to haul something like the OP's system around, I much prefer working locally on most of the stuff I do.
I'm thankful for the ability to access systems remotely, it has saved me a trip into the office on several occasions but even with modern broadband it is not quite the same a being there. To me it doesn't make much sense to pay for the performance of a high end system only to have it hobbled by running the interface through broadband.