Shipping a PC. What to do with the CPU and Motherboard.

[JazzzOnYourDace]

Hi guys,

 

I hope this is in the right topic. I will be shipping my PC by air mail soon and I was wondering what the best way to take it apart and pack it would be. I was going to remove the graphics card, power supply and storage and RAM. I was also going to remove the CPU cooler, however I'm not sure what to do with the CPU itself. I feel like leaving it in the motherboard might be the best option of a bad bunch. If I leave it in the socket I think it could quite easily be damaged, however I can't find the socket protector bit so removing the CPU makes me worried for the pins in the motherboard. I might be able to salvage one if the best option is removing the CPU but just incase. What would everyone recommend?

 

Thanks in advance!

[TheBahrbarian]

1 minute ago, JazzzOnYourDace said:

Hi guys,

 

I hope this is in the right topic. I will be shipping my PC by air mail soon and I was wondering what the best way to take it apart and pack it would be. I was going to remove the graphics card, power supply and storage and RAM. I was also going to remove the CPU cooler, however I'm not sure what to do with the CPU itself. I feel like leaving it in the motherboard might be the best option of a bad bunch. If I leave it in the socket I think it could quite easily be damaged, however I can't find the socket protector bit so removing the CPU makes me worried for the pins in the motherboard. I might be able to salvage one if the best option is removing the CPU but just incase. What would everyone recommend?

 

Thanks in advance!

I always thought the best way to ship an entire system was to remove the GPU as well as the CPU cooler, but leave everything else untouched. I imagine for the most part everything else in the PC is pretty secure as is and can handle being shipped. Maybe just add some kind of packing material inside the tower to stop anything that comes loose from moving around?

 

But in regards the the CPU itself, I would imagine if you dont have the socket protector the safest thing to do is leave the cpu in.

[JazzzOnYourDace]

11 minutes ago, TheBahrbarian said:

I always thought the best way to ship an entire system was to remove the GPU as well as the CPU cooler, but leave everything else untouched. I imagine for the most part everything else in the PC is pretty secure as is and can handle being shipped. Maybe just add some kind of packing material inside the tower to stop anything that comes loose from moving around?

 

But in regards the the CPU itself, I would imagine if you dont have the socket protector the safest thing to do is leave the cpu in.

That's what I was thinking too, didn't want to risk it too much with things like RAM but I imagine they'd be okay. So I think I'll just leave the CPU in the socket then. Any idea what packing material would be good to use inside the PC?

[Fasauceome]

I shipped a whole PC once and bought a low profile cooler so that I didn't have to worry about removing it. What cooler are you dealing with?

[JazzzOnYourDace]

1 minute ago, Fasauceome said:

I shipped a whole PC once and bought a low profile cooler so that I didn't have to worry about removing it. What cooler are you dealing with?

Not sure what cooler it is exactly but its definitely not low profile so I think I'll take it off to be safe.

[TheBahrbarian]

9 minutes ago, JazzzOnYourDace said:

That's what I was thinking too, didn't want to risk it too much with things like RAM but I imagine they'd be okay. So I think I'll just leave the CPU in the socket then. Any idea what packing material would be good to use inside the PC?

Yeah I think pretty much anything that is  isn't super heavy and precarious should be fine, RAM is pretty light so no need to remove it IMO. As far as a packing material I have no clue. I know some system builders ship towers with those packing bags inside of them (i don't remember what they are called. Linus mentioned them once in one of their old videos/reviews on system builders). I think anything that static safe would be fine.

[JazzzOnYourDace]

2 minutes ago, TheBahrbarian said:

Yeah I think pretty much anything that is super heavy and precarious should be fine, RAM is pretty light so no need to remove it IMO. As far as a packing material I have no clue. I know some system builders ship towers with those packing bags inside of them (i don't remember what they are called. Linus mentioned them once in one of their old videos/reviews on system builders). I think anything that static safe would be fine.

Wonderful thank you for the advice. I'll have a route around and see what I can find for packing material 

[DailyProcrastinator]

I've sent a motherboard with a CPU, RAM, low profile CPU cooler, and M.2 installed. I put it all a large anti static bag, then wrapped the bag in lots of bubble wrap and put in a box, had no issues at all.

[GLD]

5 hours ago, JazzzOnYourDace said:

Hi guys,

 

I hope this is in the right topic. I will be shipping my PC by air mail soon and I was wondering what the best way to take it apart and pack it would be. I was going to remove the graphics card, power supply and storage and RAM. I was also going to remove the CPU cooler, however I'm not sure what to do with the CPU itself. I feel like leaving it in the motherboard might be the best option of a bad bunch. If I leave it in the socket I think it could quite easily be damaged, however I can't find the socket protector bit so removing the CPU makes me worried for the pins in the motherboard. I might be able to salvage one if the best option is removing the CPU but just incase. What would everyone recommend?

 

Thanks in advance!

You could try buying the foam that SI's such as CyberpowerPC uses.

[JazzzOnYourDace]

4 hours ago, GLD said:

You could try buying the foam that SI's such as CyberpowerPC uses.

I'm in South Korea, I'm not sure where I'd be able to get it unfortunately 

[asand1]

I would leave the GPU in place and use a plastic bag filled with spray foam to stabilize everything.