Transporting a computer cross country

[staddydaddy]

Next week I'm going to be driving from Texas to California to head out to college. I'll be taking my current computer with me out there in the car. I'm trying to think of what precausions / preparations I need to do inorder to make sure my computer is safely transported with me. I was thinking maybe I should take components out while it's en route (ram, CPU, GPU, sound card?) I'm not exactly sure what I should do and I thought I would post here to get some advice from you guys on what you think I should do.

 

[B.Calhoun]

I would say just take all the plugs out and keep them together. And just put your computer in a box with alot of stirafoam (spelling).

 

[The Dark Elf]

I'd probably suggest you take apart the computer, pack each piece carefully so it can't be damaged. Especially the hard drives, most of the other delicate stuff is also light so apart from something big and heaving falling on those they'd be ok. The Hard drives though are another matter.. I'd back everything up and not be too surprised if they end up buggered by the end.


Edit: Oh and good luck. transporting computer parts is something I hate doing with a passion

 

[staddydaddy]

I'd probably suggest you take apart the computer, pack each piece carefully so it can't be damaged. Especially the hard drives, most of the other delicate stuff is also light so apart from something big and heaving falling on those they'd be ok. The Hard drives though are another matter.. I'd back everything up and not be too surprised if they end up buggered by the end.

By the time I leave, I'll have the computer running in RAID 1 so I'll have a mirror image of the drive.

 

[Gunsnroses]

I've travveled with my puter alot, i'd say it depends if you got a smooth ride or not.

 

[Bigcheese]

i went from NC to utah with my pc and laptop and i just stuck it in the back it it was just fine and still is.

 

[SalmonMan]

I would recommend that you take the heatsink off at least, especially if youre going to transport it upright. Its a sad day when you open up your computer only to see that everything has been thoroughly wrecked by a free roaming copper cooler.

 

[Cyanide]

I travel with my computer all the time. I don't know if your vehicle is the same, but here's what I do.

Put a pillow on the floor behind the front seat and then set the tower ontop of that. Place it so the motherboard is closest to the rear seat and lean the tower back towards the rear seat just a bit so that the tower is not verticle. Then slide the passanger seat back, wedging the tower between the front and rear passenger seats. If you wanted, you could possibly wrap the tower in buble wrap before doing this. Unless you're going off-road, you don't need to take the computer apart. The components are made of laminated plastic, not glass, and they're held in place by metal screws (a metal retention pin and the socket itself in the case of the CPU). They won't break. And don't worry about the hard drive, most if not all hard drives are rated for a couple hundred Gs or more, so you'll be fine unless you get into a head on collision at 100+ mph (the HDs are more likely to survive that than you).

If you've got a CRT monitor, it is what you need to be most careful about. You can use the same idea of wedging it between seats with a pillow on the floor. I always take the stand off the bottom of the monitor and then place it between the front and rear seats with the screen up and the top of the monitor facing the rear seat. It wedges in their pretty good and I've never had any damage incured.

Basicly the idea is to keep everything from moving around. Since you'll probably be traveling mostly on highways, the biggest thing to worry about is having to slam on your breaks and having things slide around violently. So do whatever you have to do to secure your stuff tightly in place.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Wow, could you be any ruder Cyanide.

Next time you post, try do it without insulting others on the sly. Thanks.

 

[Cyanide]

I was being rude? How so?

 

[The Dark Elf]

I was being rude? How so?

The general attitude in your post, infering others know nothing while your completely right.

I've had others complain about you doing that in other posts before now, but this is the first time I've actually seen it myself.

 

[staddydaddy]

Wow, could you be any ruder Cyanide.

uhhhh he did not come off rude at all to me.

 

[oldagerocker]

me neither.. sound advice tbh. I dont drive and i have to get my pc (via train) from here to the centre of England every so often for lans, anyone got any idea's? im thinking of getting a trolley, it is really heavy...

 

[Cyanide]

Oh, so when I have a view contrary to yours I'm being rude? I move my computer around several times per month, but my advice doesn't count because I told him that taking the computer apart is pointless and you told him to take every component out and wrap it up seperately?

It is a fact that computer components are not made of glass. I don't think anybody will argue that. If you've ever tried to break a PC card or motherboard, or rip a CPU out of a socket you would know how much force they can take. I have done that, so I do know.

He'll make whatever decision he wants to make. He can take his computer apart if he wants. He can leave it togehter if he wants. I'm merely offering him the knowledge I've gained after lots of experience moving computers. I'm sorry if your - or other people's - ego is fragile. People are going to disagree with you. People are going to disagree with me. Just deal with it.

BTW, I always find it funny when people think they can infer my attitude from simple text. Any "inflection" you percieve is in your head, not mine.

 

[staddydaddy]

me neither.. sound advice tbh. I dont drive and i have to get my pc (via train) from here to the centre of England every so often for lans, anyone got any idea's? im thinking of getting a trolley, it is really heavy...

I saw this one guy on a cpl video that had this like nice thing that wrapped around his tower and then had a handel at the top (turning it into something similar to a big breifcase).

 

[blackeye]

There are braces you can buy for your agp and pci slots so that the cards dont accidently fall out when shipping or being moved. I know computer companies like hypersonic and falcon use them.

 

[RussianEmpire]

If you got a heavy card like i do i suget you take it out so it wouldnt fall out of the agp slot and get brokrn :cheese:

 

[Maxi]

Wow, could you be any ruder Cyanide.

Next time you post, try do it without insulting others on the sly. Thanks.

He didn't seem rude to me either. I think it's only you who see his post as rude?

 

[blahblahblah]

Just as an advanced warning, when you move your computer to its final destination, open up the case (if you keep the computer whole) and make sure all IDE, SATA and power cables are firmly attached to their spots.

That is one of the more common problems with transporting a computer over long distances.

He didn't seem rude to me either. I think it's only you who see his post as rude?

More gruff than rude.

 

[JFry]

I don't think he was being rude at all, seemed like good advice to me. Unless Staddy drives like a complete maniac then I'd say taking the whole thing apart would be overkill, and even then its not likely to help avoid damage. At most I would take your hd's out and bubble wrap/foam insulate, whatever you want to do. Putting them in between two pillows would work fine.

 

[Vegeta897]

Leave it to Fenric to see this kinda stuff.

/me runs

Do computers really get damaged that easily? Wow.. Good thing I don't drive.. yet..

 

[KidRock]

Wow, could you be any ruder Cyanide.

Next time you post, try do it without insulting others on the sly. Thanks.

Your the one being rude..

 

[gh0st]

Wow, could you be any ruder Cyanide.

Next time you post, try do it without insulting others on the sly. Thanks.

he wasent rude at all. but whatever...

cyanide offers sound advice, id go with what he said . one thing id suggest (as was said before) is taking out any heavy graphics cards so in case you get into a bumpy area they dont break anything off. some of them are beastly. taking apart the entire computer is pretty unnecessary imo.

 

[ShinRa]

He wasn't rude in the least. He was actually very informative.

And basically what he said, I'd do. Pillows are your friends.

 

[Hazar]

I'd leave it together myself. Less risk of the dreaded esd (aka. static electricity). Just make sure it's nice and padded.

btw, I didn't think he was rude either.