anyone ever checked in a full desktop system on a flight?

[DeeKnow]

I'm contemplating buying a full system off AT and have my bro bring it with him when he flies to Europe.... has anyone ever done this (checked in a desktop for a transatlantic flight)...

any chance that it will survive all the handling ??

(stuff costs at least twice the US prices here in Switzerland, if you're wondering...)

any experiences ??

 

[quakefiend420]

pack it well, and pull the hsf off the cpu and it should be fine

 

[phisrow]

As noted, remove the heatsink. Also, if practical, pull any hard drives and carry them(in a padded bag) on your person. Make sure the PSU is screwed in properly, lest it crush something expensive. I've put two desktops through as checked baggage that way(didn't even bother with the heat sinks, actually, because these were older P3s so the heatsinks weren't monsters) and everything survived. You may end up having to reseat a RAM module or a power plug or something; but that is easy enough.

 

[vshah]

what i did when i shipped mine was this.
unplugged all the pci cards, wrap them in bubble wrap
remove hsf, put in bubble wrap,
remove hard drives, put in bubble wrap

all these happily bubble wrapped bits were then tied down inside the case.

maybe overkill, but i didn't want to risk anything. it survived just fine 🙂

 

[Skiddex]

hmm, this eases my concerns about bringing my system down for quakecon, was debating just buying parts there and putting one together 🙂

 

[DeeKnow]

Originally posted by: Skiddex
hmm, this eases my concerns about bringing my system down for quakecon, was debating just buying parts there and putting one together 🙂

where are you bringing it down to ?

 

[Skiddex]

grapevine texas...from milwaukee.

 

[huesmann]

Is he hauling a CRT with him? 😀

 

[Kibbo]

Empty the water from your cooling system 🙂

 

[DeeKnow]

thanks for all the tips guys.... guess the most important points are to remove the hdd and heatsink and carry those on you....

 

[StageLeft]

It will be fine if you take it apart.

 

[dullard]

A coworker did it once without taking any special precautions. All he did was put it in a suitcase with a little packing foam around it. Some of the USB ports stopped working and it crashes randomly now. I haven't looked at it yet (it was an old spare computer at work). I assume the USB ports were jiggled loose and I assume the heat sink no longer has good contact.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: phisrow
As noted, remove the heatsink. Also, if practical, pull any hard drives and carry them(in a padded bag) on your person. Make sure the PSU is screwed in properly, lest it crush something expensive. I've put two desktops through as checked baggage that way(didn't even bother with the heat sinks, actually, because these were older P3s so the heatsinks weren't monsters) and everything survived. You may end up having to reseat a RAM module or a power plug or something; but that is easy enough.

Yes, you should probably remove all this...otherwise, the baggage workers might do it for you! 😉

 

[sharkeeper]

anyone ever checked in a full desktop system on a flight?

It's kind of hard because there are no outlets to plug it in. 😛

Pack really well as if you were shipping UPS ground. If the heatsink is not through bolted to the mainboard and weighs more than 150g, REMOVE it and the CPU!

Ditto for high performance video cards.

 

[JDub02]

I took a mid-tower as a carry-on. no problems as i was doing all the handling. it fit in the overhead compartment.

if i had to check it, it'd be packed really well with the HSF removed along with anything that had some weight and wasn't screwed into the case solidly.

 

[loic2003]

I just brought across ahe parts in a squashy bg (Motherboard, CPU, GPU). They were in the boxes they came in and arrived unscathed.