Best way to transport a desktop?

[McKay]

Im taking my desktop to my friends house, whats the best way to transport it? It has mechanical Harddrives inside, should I wedge it behind the seat in the car so it doesnt move? Or simply lay it down in the boot (trunk)? Is it ok to lay it down or does it need to stand up?

[HawkMan]

Set it down in the back seat or lay it down in the trunk, doesn't matter either way. Unless you drive Ike an idiot, even then the drives will be in park position when off so you won't damage the drive. When off a drive need a fairly decent fall onto a pretty solid surface to take damage.

[Crisp]

Is it ok to lay it down or does it need to stand up?

Lolwut, it's not a plasma TV. Just make sure it doesn't move about during the journey.

[sagum]

Im taking my desktop to my friends house, whats the best way to transport it? It has mechanical Harddrives inside, should I wedge it behind the seat in the car so it doesnt move? Or simply lay it down in the boot (trunk)? Is it ok to lay it down or does it need to stand up?

I like to put the front passenger seat forward, put the case in the back seat's foot well and then put the front seat back so it's a nice snug fit. If that's not an option I'll put it on the back seat and use a seat belt to keep it in place.

I've transported many a case like that over 90 miles and they've been fine.

One thing I would say though, if you have wifi antennas, you might want to unscrew them before you set off.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Placing the unit on its side will help reduce strain on the CPU heat sink during transport.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[Andre S. Veteran]

Yup, as goretsky said, place the computer on its side so gravity pulls the components into the motherboard rather than away from it. I'd place it on crude bubblewrap on a seat (because I'm paranoid) and make sure it cannot move by itself. Should be fine.

[Detection]

I've knocked my running machine off its desk from about 1m up and it didn't die, lay it on the floor of the boot / standing on the back seat with seatbelt across it (In case you crash and end up with a PC in the back of your head) and drive normally

[techbeck]

Lay it down on the floor and it will be fine. I transferred a PC 2k miles with no problems like this.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

put it in the back seat, strap it in with a seatbelt, and stuff a couple of fluffy jackets around it....but drive carefully, avoid potholes/bumps, but if you have to hit them anyway, creep over them. I've found that this seems to work for me anytime I've had to move mine, but ymmv. Just be careful, whatever you decide to do.

[techbeck]

I would also open the case after you moved it and check all the connections. No matter how careful you are, components can become loose.

[HawkMan]

I'm guessing by now this desktop has not only been transported to the friends house but back again as well :)

[sc302 Veteran]

get some bubble wrap, wrap it around 10-20 times... get some duct tape and pillows, cover the computer with the pillows and duct tape the pillows around the computer...put it in a seat and put the seat belt around it. For more protection, fit you car with a 5 point racers harness and put it in that....for even more protection disassemble the entire computer, put each component in a static proof bag and bubble wrap each component...put each component in its own box....fill your trunk with down feathers and bubble wrap and lay your boxes on that.....

really, just put the computer in your car. if it is off you don't have to worry, those magnets are strong enough to hold the heads in place while driving provided you don't fall off a cliff causing your car to explode or get into an accident where a mack truck makes your car into what would look like an accordian. Something extremely serious would have to occur beyond your computer falling from your seat to the floor during a hard stop (it would have to be a harder fall than this for something to effect your computer in a negative way)...I have had to transport many computers out of boxes many times, but to be safe, just put it in your trunk or behind your seat where it won't move much. The cpu is held to the main board by the heat sink, the heat sink is screwed to the motherboard in many cases or has pins that hold it in. The hard drives are screwed to the case. The memory is probably the one that become the most probematic where it may need to be reseated....this happened so few times but it is worth mentioning if you do have issues.

[thechronic]

Pet Carrier - pets and pc's both require care.

[Haggis Veteran]

My laptop fell off my table last night and it was fine lol

i usually put it on the floor in the back

or if its on a seat make sure it has a seatbelt you don't want a pc to the back of the head if u crash

[Phouchg]

The best way, I imagine, would be the original box of the case, complete with the plastic bag and foam padding. It's pretty safe then, can even take a little fall without trouble.

Such box does take space in the room, though.

[droolingmonkey]

Buffalo. Surely the sweetest of all transportation methods. Its the eyelashes.

[The Evil Overlord]

I've done both, placed mine in the footwell behind the front passanger seat upright, while transporting it to the repair store when the psu gave out (at the time I didn't know it was the psu)

And have placed the tower on it's side, (motherboard towards the bottom) when I took it to my brother's house to show it off (years ago) that was a 2 hour drive, still using it to this day the trick is to not let it slide about or bang needlessly into the sides of your (trunk/boot depending on locale)

[theyarecomingforyou]

I've knocked my running machine off its desk from about 1m up and it didn't die

lol, that's pretty impressive. :yes:

[Detection]

lol, that's pretty impressive. :yes:

I know, there were 4 HDDs in there too, the HAF922 did its job, it got a scuff mark on the top plastics and the HDD bay was slightly twisted but all hardware survived

Even had a huge Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme cooler bolted to the board which didn't snap :)

[beanboy89]

I normally just sit desktops on their side in the trunk (boot for you guys outside the US). They slide around a bit, but are always perfectly fine whenever I arrive at my destination. Loose hardware is a different story. I once had a graphics card, wireless card, and some RAM floating around in the trunk and the graphics card died during the trip (probably from static); no big loss, though, it was a really old card.

[Brony]

Also

[DarkHorizons]

Stand it behind the car, and twine it to the rear tow ring. Drive as normal.

[(Account no longer active)]

Lay it's side on a bed sheet covering the back seat so it doesn't get scratched (ie. against seat belts). The back seats provide the best dampening to vibrations. I would not stand it up on the floor.

[francescob]

In the foot resting space between the front seat and back seat, on the passenger side. That way you can move the passenger seat back enough so that the case stands still without moving much.