Is it safe to transport a PC in a car??

[Havbags]

I have divorced parents so I need to be able to transport a PC from house to house if I get one, I was thinking of buying the ASUS TUF Gaming GT501 Mid-Tower Computer Case but I am unsure if something in my PC will break will in the car.

[Rybo]

The video card might slip around if you don't treat it right, but I just took a water cooled PC with two video cards in it for a 10 hour drive and it did it fine.  Note: there was liquid in the machine as well.  No leakage, no problems.  Booted right up.  

If you don't want to have to be totally careful, though, you might want to invest in some packing material for the inside of the PC so you can just stuff it in and keep things from jostling around too much during your commutes.  If you buy a prebuilt, it should come with some packing material like that.  Keep it.  Probably keep the box as well -- it's the best package your computer is likely to ever see.  

[tarfeef101]

How often are you moving?

When I was a kid, I gamed on consoles, and brought those back and forth basically every week. I'd recommend an ITX build for similar convenience if moving that often. For example, my LAN rig is a Dan A4 SFX, and I also have an HTPC which is a K39 (aliexpress). Those are super small and easy to transport. 

 

When I was in university, I moved every 4-8 months. Then, full-size builds weren't a big deal to move around, even though they were more work, since it wasn't so frequent. 

With those ITX cases, everything is so tightly packed that all you need to do is put the case back into the box or a padded bag, and you're good to go. With bigger builds, it's worth your time to fill the empty spaces in the case with packing material, clothes, etc. just to fill the space and prevent stuff from ratting around (mostly the GPU). So it takes a little longer. Also just picking it up, putting it into the foam, into the box, etc. takes longer because it is more cumbersome. 

 

I used to game A LOT as a kid, so I wouldn't stop gaming til my parents were like, at the door, so being able to pack up fast and get into the car before they got mad was important, so I definitely favoured speed. But if you move less frequently and aren't always in a mad rush, there's no problem to use a bigger case if you want to. I've driven for hours with full ATX watercooled builds, even with hard tubing, and not had issues. 

[Vulture78]

I would not worry about moving a standard PC in the car. I don't have experience with custom water cooled loops however.  If you only have a standard air cooled PC or an AIO, I would suspect you would be fine as long as you handle with care and make sure it is secured and will no tip,  slide off a seat, etc... 

 

I am not sure what your financial situation is, but if you can afford it, i would get a second monitor to avoid moving that back and forth. I would be more worried about damaging the monitor than the pc...