Shipping a computer with heatsink on board?

[Azrael]

I recently bought an Aopen EZ18 SFF barebones. The first time they shipped it with the heatsink on the socket. However this heatsink is heavy, definitly over 500gr and probably over 600gr. Sometime during shipping it had been knocked around hard enough to break the cpu socket, I had to RMA it and order a new one. My question is how light does a cpu cooler have to be so you can ship it without worry of it being ripped off the socket? Would a Thermaltake Volcano 10 at 285gr be light enough?

Thanks, Joshua S.

 

[SilthDraeth]

I personally wouldn't ship any pc with the heatsink attached to it, for precisely the same reason as your RMA, even putting a fragile handle with care message you would be risking it. Maybe if you payed a premium for insurance to insure if it got damaged you could hold the shipping company responsible.

But in my opinion it would be best to just take the heat sink off, when shipping.

 

[Tiamat]

If its a tower sink - it doesnt matter the weight. Its torque will destroy the ZIFF socket. If its a low profile heatsink, you would be fine if it was less than 300grams probably.

 

[Azrael]

Thanks for the resonse, that's pretty much what I expected. I guess it would be a gamble to ship with any cooler atached.

Joshua S.

 

[Zepper]

When I was using a fairly tall heavy HSF, I tethered it to the bottom of my PSU with zip tie to take some of the stress off the socket. I suppose something like that could be rigged with ties radiating in all directions. But I would prefer to pack a heavy HSF separately. I also like to pack the hard drives separately. I think that is one of the prime causes of early HD death.
.bh.