Moving from Ottawa to Minnesota. What to do with Gaming rig

[marcooli0]

So I landed a job in Minnesota, and it's gonna require me to move from Ottawa to Chisago City. The problem? I have a Phantom 410 Mid-Tower case that wouldn't exactly be fun to carry around. It's got the following specs:

M5A99X EVO R2.0 with UEFI BIOS
8GB DDR3 RAM
FX 8350
GTX 970 4GB
3 TB of HDD space
OCZ Fatal1ty 750W Power Supply

I'm gonna be flying, but if there's a way I can bring it with me in a giant suitcase on a plane as a carry on, then I would definitely consider that. I "could" sell it and get one of those CyberPower Syber Vapor console PCs as that would be a very portable alternative, but I wanted to ask the Tom's Hardware community what it thinks first.

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

[DustinV]

I had a pc shipped cross country with UPS, but you have to pay for them to professionally package it and get the insurance.

Never had any problems

 

[USAFRet]

If you like it, ship it.

 

[JQB45]

Why not move with a moving truck and bring all your stuff? BTW Congratulations on the new job. You should still like the winters there as they get very cold with a lot of snow too.

 

[Dunlop0078]

Yeah I agree just ship it down. Thats way to big for carry on in any plane I have been in and checked luggage costs a fortune (depending on the airline) if its over a certain size and weight. I would never recommend you sell it and but some pre built however.

 

[mjslakeridge]

As suggested, shipping it seems like a good idea. I would remove the HDD's and carry them with you on the plane, packed in your carry on. If you have a large CPU cooler, I would probably remove that also, in the event the packaged up computer gets dropped, it won't put stress on the motherboard. Other than that, there is not much else inside a computer that can "break" (short of the whole thing getting crushed, or run over by the truck).

 

[USAFRet]

The only thing I might remove is a large air cooler. The drives are probably safer securely mounted in a well packed case, rather than carrying them around.

 

[mjslakeridge]

I see your point about the drives being safer in a well packed case, however I was also thinking about data loss in the event the whole thing got lost or stolen. (My wife had 6 boxes stolen/lost years ago when we shipped all of her college stuff to Houston via Greyhound. None were ever recovered).

Of course all of the data should be backed up somewhere already, but not all do that.

 

[Saberus]

Shipping it should not be an issue, so long as you have a means to support anything heavy in the case, like heat sinks and video cards. Just make sure what you use is static-free.

You should also pad the outside adequately, at least 2.5cm on all sides, preferably 5cm. Most of the servers I deal with use 5cm of foam at the minimum, and if it goes over 30kg, even thicker. And they all ways go in double-walled boxes, or double boxed.

If you use a shipping service, verify in advance the materials and thickness of the padding they will use.

Whoever packs it, make sure to insure it, and have photos taken of the computer, the padding, and the condition of the outside box when finished. Insuring it might add to the cost, but it is much better to have it and not need it. And having evidence of the starting condition will make it nearly impossible for the shipper to weasel out of careless handling.

 

[USAFRet]

I see your point about the drives being safer in a well packed case, however I was also thinking about data loss in the event the whole thing got lost or stolen. (My wife had 6 boxes stolen/lost years ago when we shipped all of her college stuff to Houston via Greyhound. None were ever recovered).

Of course all of the data should be backed up somewhere already, but not all do that.

A lost/dead/stolen drive should never be more than:
"Aw crap, now I have to buy another drive, and then retrieve the data from my backup."

 

[mjslakeridge]

The key word in your statement^^ is "should". I am double or triple backed up on my really important files, but then again I have a lot of time on my hands.

 

[USAFRet]

The key word in your statement^^ is "should". I am double or triple backed up on my really important files, but then again I have a lot of time on my hands.

So am I. And it took 30 minutes to set up. After that, automated hands off.

 

[marcooli0]

Wow. I didn't expect this many responses, but it sounds like I should be shipping it. Should I leave the graphics card in there? Couldn't the pins get damaged? Also, my cooler is the hyper 212, so I'm guessing I should remove that? Lastly, how much would shipping cost me roughly?

Thank you all for such great responses.

 

[Saberus]

Wow. I didn't expect this many responses, but it sounds like I should be shipping it. Should I leave the graphics card in there? Couldn't the pins get damaged? Also, my cooler is the hyper 212, so I'm guessing I should remove that? Lastly, how much would shipping cost me roughly?

Thank you all for such great responses.

It might be easiest to remove them first, then make sure they're clean and put them into static proof bags. The grey kind, the pink kind are only static resistant. Then pack them well (2.5cm minimum on all sides). everything else should be secure enough for transport in the case, though the processor isn't fully captive in the socket, so that might benefit from being separately packed as well.

As far as cost, it depends who you go through. The major shippers are going to charge an arm and a leg for sure, but the end cost is going to be far less than the cost of a new system.

USPS/Canada Post is also a bit iffy, I've had mixed resulted with them, and you will have to pack it yourself.

Again, I cannot stress enough that you should insure the package, and have plenty of photo documentation of the condition of the gear and packaging before shipment. It should also be relatively easy to carry a backup with you separate from the shipment. Call it paranoia, but this has saved me and my employers more than once when the shipper decided to play soccer with the boxes.

 

[Matthughes576]

I recommend selling your current pc and building a new one in a node 202 style case for extreme portability.

 

[marcooli0]

I recommend selling your current pc and building a new one in a node 202 style case for extreme portability.

That's something to consider. I'm definitely more keen on Silverstone, however.