I'm going to second this. Monitor real estate is one of the most important machine productivity metrics in my experience (the other being build/test turnaround

I'm going to second this. Monitor real estate is one of the most important machine productivity metrics in my experience (the other being build/test turnaround time). Its seems there are always trade-offs when trying to drive a lot of pixels even on the most displayport/MST devices. Besides that, building large projects is one of the areas where multicore systems really shine. The projects I work on have hour plus build times on the 2-4 core class machine one generally finds in a laptop. Those times can be shrunk to <5 minutes with a fairly inexpensive desktop machine these days. Basically, I would reverse it, get the best desktop class machine possible, and a fairly low end laptop with a decent screen. Put the desktop wherever you do the most work, and then remote into it with the laptop. If your stuck on a plane/etc, work on a presentation or whatever..