Swapping CPUs and Shipping?

[mikeyg83]

I am building a comp for my bro, and all the parts are here except for the C2D (big surprise). I personally have a P4 540J in my system. After I build my bro's system, i have to ship it to him. My 2 questions are:

1) i assume not many people have any experience with this, but if i were to use my P4 to set everything up, then take it out and ship him the computer without a processor, would he need to do anything besides drop the processor in? "set everything up" means assemble the whole machine and install all the software. Do you foresee any complications with this?

2) in regard to shipping, i am shipping from st louis (missouri) to DC. any suggestions on how to ensure everything will arrive safely? obviously there are no guarantees, but with experience do you guys have a preferred method of shipping computers? does ups/fedex/etc have some sort of special service?

i don't think the specs of the computer that i'm building matters, but they are:
gigabyte DS3
C2D e6600
2x1024 Corsair XMS2 PC6400
2x320 GB Samsung 7200.10
antec p180
NEC dvd burner
lite-on cd burner (i think)
thermaltake blue-orb cpu cooler
antec smartpower 2.0 500W

thanks for your help

 

[Lord Evermore]

I foresee HUGE complications if he isn't actually familiar with building a computer and installing a processor himself. If he knows what he's doing and there are other reasons you had to build and ship it, then presumably it'll be okay.

As far as changing the processor, there shouldn't be any problems. There may be some "new hardware detected" messages and some reboots required, and he might need to reset the BIOS or it might complain on POST about the hardware having changed. He'd want to check all the settings for memory and bus speed anyway, just to verify they're properly detected and configured.

I don't think any carriers have any sort of "for an extra 10 dollars we won't dropkick your package" service. If you were really really concerned and had plenty of money, you could courier it, that'd probably be safer.

To be as safe as possible, use a box that's plenty larger than the system, put at least an inch of solid packing material (stiff foam, not packing peanuts) on every side. Once several years ago UPS refused to even accept a PC I was shipping until I had actual material on all sides, not just styrofoam edge/corner supports that the case originally came with. Packing peanuts are fine for preventing the system from moving around too much, if you stuff them in nice and tight, but if anything sharp slams into the package they may just move out of the way and let it hit the case.

Obviously, make sure you insure the package with the carrier for at least the total cost of the parts including shipping, and tack on a bit more to cover the effort you'd have to go through to rebuild it. Insurance is really quite cheap for shipping.

And just as obviously hopefully, make sure the shipment is signature REQUIRED.

 

[mikeyg83]

not the answer i was looking for .. i was hoping for a "no problem whatsoever"..

as for the shipping, thanks for the heads-up involving packaging. i may take it to a pack-n-ship kind of place and ask them to do a good job packing it. thanks for your help

 

[SparkyJJO]

I would recommend FedEx over UPS - I get many more packages from UPS banged-up than from FedEx. Packing the innards of the computer can be a good idea, use newspaper or something like that - don't use peanuts or styrofoam because that can have static electricity buildup which we all know isn't good on computer circuitry Just be sure that your bro removes it all before turning the computer on unless he wants the fans to become paper shredders

As far as the CPU thing goes, I'd wait until I get the CPU. Go ahead pop yours in and set everything up so you don't have to do it when the CPU arrives but put the CPU in when it gets there and verify that the system is all set up right.

 

[Lord Evermore]

If he can't deal with a few Windows hardware detection messages or BIOS settings (especially if he can have you on the phone), then you don't want him sticking his hands in there and playing with a Socket775 anyway.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
I would recommend FedEx over UPS - I get many more packages from UPS banged-up than from FedEx. Packing the innards of the computer can be a good idea, use newspaper or something like that - don't use peanuts or styrofoam because that can have static electricity buildup which we all know isn't good on computer circuitry Just be sure that your bro removes it all before turning the computer on unless he wants the fans to become paper shredders

As far as the CPU thing goes, I'd wait until I get the CPU. Go ahead pop yours in and set everything up so you don't have to do it when the CPU arrives but put the CPU in when it gets there and verify that the system is all set up right.

Oh yeah, forgot all about the static electricity from packing peanuts. You notice everything that you get that's shipped with those also happens to be wrapped in some sort of anti-static container.

Anytime you ship a full PC, it's also a good idea to just open it up and reseat or at least push on anything that might have loosened from vibrations - memory, PCI cards, cables.