Shipping a computer?

[Julius Caro]

mmm let's say that I need to ship my computer some 3000 km away (to myself!). I checked at ups and it seems affordable. I built the computer myself, but the case is a p182 (which is huge :( ). I don't have the box but I still keep the white things that protected the case inside the box.

My question is... providing that a find a fitting box... will the internal components (mobo+cpu+ram, but especially the gpu or the harddrives) be okay? or would you ship them separately just in case?

[Sophism]

Take the Heatsink off, (thats the most common thing to fall off during shipping). Might be a good idea to move the HD's as well.

[gigapixels Veteran]

I'm watching this thread... I moved for school, and when I go back home for winter break I need to know this as well :)

[EnzoFX]

Well OEM's manage to ship it whole. You just gotta use a lot of Styrofoam =P

[Julius Caro]

mmm I hadn't thought about the heatsink... it's the standard intel stock heatsink... my impression is that those weird screws are very tight, but you never know. the problem is, if I remove it I would have to re-do the whole thermal paste thing again. Is the heatsink at that much risk of falling?

[-Vivicidal-]

Not if it's a stock cooler.

[gwai lo]

I'd take out everything short of the optical drive, board, processor, and RAM. Expansion cards and heatsink may move and the power supply and hard drives are heavy and dense..plus they shift the weight of the case forwardish.

Actually, best thing to do is to get an SFF. :p

<--SFF probably has 11-12 thousand miles on it now

[churchonsundays]

a buddy of mine shipped his pc from oklahoma to d.c for his new summer job. the cost was like 100$ via UPS and nothing got broken. just pack it up real nice and everything should be okay.

[Julius Caro]

I dont know about the heatsink, but I'm thinking of taking out the GPU and the hardrives. The GPU just in case, I'm not very fond of the slot, considering how big the card is to be on one slot (800GT).

I dont think the harddrives would even move anyway, but just in case.

As for the PSU sits there VERY tight, and it's in a whole different "compartment". It can barely move there, and it's actually kinda hard to take it out even when you want to.

[quadz0]

When my family moved, we packed up two of our computers, with a lot of pillows and other soft items, into the car and had the car sent. I have a feeling this is not an option for you, so you may want to remove some the parts from inside (hard drive, heatsink, pci cards) and send it like that.

[SimplyComplex]

depends on how it's handled, if its surrounded in Styrofoam, and layed on its side, it should be alright. But on a bumpy ride standing upright, the heatsink might come loose.

[Julius Caro]

I kept the foam of the p182 box, so I guess it will be standing upright. Although I'll pay a visit to one of these UPS stores to check how safe the thing can be hehe

Thanks for your input guys :)