How to fly with ATX PC

[etenree]

I am flying out of state for college and I have an atx size computer. Is there anyone who has experiences traveling with their computer? Is it possible to have it as a carry on or do I have to check it in?

 

I still have the box and Styrofoam that the case came with. I do not have any hard drives installed.

 

 

Thanks to anyone who responds! 

[Shreyas1]

Remove cpu cooler, radiator, and graphics card/any other card installed. Put these in their respective boxes. Put the rest of the pc in the case box 

[SupaKomputa]

Yes, i use to fly my atx pc as carry on. I don't know the situation now, but checking the pc would be a bad choice. As it will be tossed around.

Unplug the HDD and GPU if you have any, take it inside your bag (wrap in clothing / bubble wrap).

[etenree]

46 minutes ago, BlueScope819 said:

Do you have a tower cooler or AIO? You want to remove your GPU and CPU cooler (if a tower cooler) and ship those in their own boxes. Just put it in the regular mail with a bunch of padding or whatever.

 

43 minutes ago, Shreyas1 said:

Remove cpu cooler, radiator, and graphics card/any other card installed. Put these in their respective boxes. Put the rest of the pc in the case box 

 

35 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Yes, i use to fly my atx pc as carry on. I don't know the situation now, but checking the pc would be a bad choice. As it will be tossed around.

Unplug the HDD and GPU if you have any, take it inside your bag (wrap in clothing / bubble wrap).

Thank  you all!

[Letgomyleghoe]

1 hour ago, SupaKomputa said:

Yes, i use to fly my atx pc as carry on. I don't know the situation now, but checking the pc would be a bad choice. As it will be tossed around.

Unplug the HDD and GPU if you have any, take it inside your bag (wrap in clothing / bubble wrap).

Static bags! I always worry with clothes and airplane air.

[Bombastinator]

I think it’s likely got to be checked which means it’s got to be partially disassembled.  This won’t be the first time someone tried to fly with a desktop though so the airline will have suggestions.

 

My thought process on this:

Spoiler

The worry I have is the box will be too big to be a legal carry on.  Carry on bag size shrunk several times and I’m not sure even a bare midtower with no box Would fit the criteria any more.  Shipping boxes are made for shipping of course.  The rule is more or less anything heavy or hanging or expensive and easy to carry needs to be pulled.  The PSU is generally OK, because while it’s heavy, it sits in a corner and is connected with four screws.  It will want all four of the screws. Case glass is frequently tempered and the problem with tempered glass is instead of cracking force builds up inside the glass.  One day you will merely touch it and it will explode into little cubes.  So you don’t want hoses or stuff vibrating against it.  So cpu, fans, motherboard still attached in the case.  Cards have to come out.  If you’ve got an AIO it could theoretically be left in but there are hoses that wobble around and if they can touch the glass it could be a problem so it may have to go too.  Also if the pump/cooler is heavy it would also have to go.  Some AIOs have the pump in the rad and are light.  The issue there is you don’t want to stress the motherboard much either.  Taping the hell out of the case box and writing fragile and whichever end up on it didn’t used to be a bad idea either.  Airport baggage theft is more rare than it used to be but is still not unheard of.  This might violate TSA stuff though.  I suggest calling the airline and getting specifics from them.  They will have specifics on how many inches in what direction something must be to fit where and what must be openable in what way, etc..  it’s not impossible that taping it up might actually CAUSE it to be opened because of TSA things.  You’ll have to pull the gpu regardless.  If you still have at least the little plastic container your cpu came in it might be worth pulling it too.  Ounce for ounce it’s the most valuable thing in the machine. A gpu in its box and a cpu and cooler should fit in a legal carryon just fine. A case and mother board and PSU and fans just isn’t worth stealing.  Or at least they’re too large and hard to move on eBay.

 

[Worstcaster]

Given airlines charge your luggage by weight, it might almost be easier to ship it insured.

[Pixel5]

it would be much easier to take out the GPU and the CPU cooler and ship the entire PC with these two parts uninstalled.

if you got a heavy case the PC alone can be your entire allowed luggage, its probably way too heavy for carry on luggage as well.

[dfsgsfa]

trad ways, pack them with clothes, forget case