Best Plan for my Current Unit if I migrate overseas?

[Master PC]

There's quite a chance that my family, or myself for the sake of work, may migrate in a matter of years or less. I live in Taiwan, but there's a possibility I may move to Singapore (for my dad's businesses there).

 

Those who moved from country to country, especially those who have high-end PC's like I do, some advice is appreciated. I am struggling whether to:

 

1) Spend some money to ship the entire unit out.

 

2) Take out the most expensive and smaller components (which is the CPU, and GPU, SSD, and RAM) and place them in a luggage, while getting the rest of the new components once settled down. Of course, I always keep boxes with me.

 

3) Sell the entire unit locally and start over from scratch once settled down.

 

I just could not bear the thought of leaving my gaming + workstation beast behind. Which one is the best course of action?

[Blasty Blosty]

I would say option 2 if you still have the boxes for the components, but parts like the case would just be easier to sell and rebuy.

[jaslion]

What specs?

[Master PC]

16 minutes ago, jaslion said:

What specs?

i9-14900K + RTX4080S + 32G RAM + 2TB SSD

[porina]

The most important thing will be your personal data, so keep your data drives. Personally I'd avoid moving any more stuff than you have to, so sell the rest and rebuy later. Consider a gaming laptop to help with the transition.

[Blue4130]

59 minutes ago, Master PC said:

There's quite a chance that my family, or myself for the sake of work, may migrate in a matter of years or less. I live in Taiwan, but there's a possibility I may move to Singapore (for my dad's businesses there).

 

Those who moved from country to country, especially those who have high-end PC's like I do, some advice is appreciated. I am struggling whether to:

 

1) Spend some money to ship the entire unit out.

 

2) Take out the most expensive and smaller components (which is the CPU, and GPU, SSD, and RAM) and place them in a luggage, while getting the rest of the new components once settled down. Of course, I always keep boxes with me.

 

3) Sell the entire unit locally and start over from scratch once settled down.

 

I just could not bear the thought of leaving my gaming + workstation beast behind. Which one is the best course of action?

As someone who has moved around the world, I vote for sell it UNLESS you are moving a large amount of housing goods and can ship it via freight container. The ammount of crating that will need to be done to keep it safe and give you peace of mind will be substantial. For example, Origin computers uses full wood crates when they ship.

 

 

Nothing less than this, with appropriate care for internal parts (remove GPU and cooler, etc)

[jaslion]

57 minutes ago, Master PC said:

i9-14900K + RTX4080S + 32G RAM + 2TB SSD

Unless you are doing what @Blue4130 said sell, keep drives maybe for data and buy again later.

 

If some cores parts are way expensive just package em up in their boxes, take with and buy the rest again there.

 

 

[PDifolco]

2 hours ago, Master PC said:

There's quite a chance that my family, or myself for the sake of work, may migrate in a matter of years or less. I live in Taiwan, but there's a possibility I may move to Singapore (for my dad's businesses there).

 

Those who moved from country to country, especially those who have high-end PC's like I do, some advice is appreciated. I am struggling whether to:

 

1) Spend some money to ship the entire unit out.

 

2) Take out the most expensive and smaller components (which is the CPU, and GPU, SSD, and RAM) and place them in a luggage, while getting the rest of the new components once settled down. Of course, I always keep boxes with me.

 

3) Sell the entire unit locally and start over from scratch once settled down.

 

I just could not bear the thought of leaving my gaming + workstation beast behind. Which one is the best course of action?

I'd keep in a luggage the small and valuable parts - CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD, fans-  and sell the rest (case, cooler, PSU) , those are bigger and not that expensive to replace

Can even keep the PSU, the real big thing is the case

 

[Kisai]

22 hours ago, Master PC said:

3) Sell the entire unit locally and start over from scratch once settled down.

 

I just could not bear the thought of leaving my gaming + workstation beast behind. Which one is the best course of action?

Pull the hard drive out, sell the main unit, buy a new system, put hard drive in new system.

 

It's not worth moving a computer, furniture, vehicles or large appliances when moving over seas mainly because 70% of the stuff that gets moved will be damaged and there's the potential for it to be stolen or the shipping company to lose it, since it will spend like 8 weeks at sea.

 

[Master PC]

30 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Pull the hard drive out, sell the main unit, buy a new system, put hard drive in new system.

 

It's not worth moving a computer, furniture, vehicles or large appliances when moving over seas mainly because 70% of the stuff that gets moved will be damaged and there's the potential for it to be stolen or the shipping company to lose it, since it will spend like 8 weeks at sea.

 

Aight, thanks for the suggestion.

 

However, I upgraded my CPU and GPU not so long ago, and now that you mentioned it, maybe the SSD, CPU, and GPU will be boxed and packed in a luggage or carryon, while the rest be sold?

 

I have i9-14900K and RTX4080 Super, so I can't see them sold that soon.

[Kisai]

6 minutes ago, Master PC said:

Aight, thanks for the suggestion.

 

However, I upgraded my CPU and GPU not so long ago, and now that you mentioned it, maybe the SSD, CPU, and GPU will be boxed and packed in a luggage or carryon, while the rest be sold?

 

I have i9-14900K and RTX4080 Super, so I can't see them sold that soon.

 

I'd probably not bother with the CPU. You can pull the GPU if you still have the packing box for it, otherwise it'll probably just get damaged.

 

Usually the primary rule for air travel is "buy an extra seat for extremely valuable equipment, and take everything in carryon" of which a seat might cost as much as the computer in some cases. Only check luggage that you can afford to replace.

 

Basically as others said, you want to take your data, on the SSD, and if you just swap a new computers SSD with the SSD you have, if it has the same CPU you can just pick up where you left off with most software not needing to be reauthorized.

 

If you're willing to spend the money to ship it, I'd evaluate how much you're paying to ship it versus how much it costs to buy it new, because generally people who travel frequently have to stick to mid-tier thicker laptops due to how much it costs, but also because ultrabook designs are easily damaged from handling at airports.

 

Like, electronics don't travel well at the best of times, even when things are sent commercially on pallets, they are often overpackaged and wrapped so they don't move and can withstand another pallet being placed on top. A single computer is likely to be damaged, even if well packaged simply from how it will be handled by the logistics company, FEDEX/UPS/DHL/etc literately drop stuff from planes which is typically an 8 ft drop.

 

I've seen computers packaged in wood crates, end up with inch-deep bends in the chassis from these drops. Hence, reiterate, avoid shipping the whole desktop.

 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

It depends crucially on the markets you are moving from and to. Will the same parts be available at the similar prices? Is your current used market good for a seller? What about the destination used market? And as others mentioned, would you be shipping other stuff anyways?

 

The only time I moved internationally while already having a desktop (actually, more than one), I took absolutely everything I had, even bought some components to take with me and build an upgraded system in my new home. Reason? I was sending quite a bit of stuff anyway, and PC parts were substantially more expensive at the new place, if available at all. (OK, plus silly reasons like sentimental value or semi-collectable, rather obsolete stuff ). The used market was also years behind at the new place, in terms of depth and price.

The way I did it was to take the newest/smallest/most valuable components (new mobo in its box, with new CPU and RAM sticks inside said box, and an HDD transport box with my data drives) with me, surrounded by cloth, in my checked luggage. Some minor things may have come in cabin. Everything else was packed in its box, cover in plastic wrap, then fitted inside larger boxes meant for the shipping company (note: if you think luggage handlers are rough, wait until you see how your self-shipped DHL/FedEx/UPS large items arrive...). Then I rebuilt my systems.

 

Had I been moving in the opposite direction, I would have tried to sell anything in the starved used market, then buy new component in the much better supplied (either new or used) market, except maybe a few "iconic" or easy to take components (plus the data drives). And had I moved between similar markets.... probably I would have tried selling then rebuying as well (it also depends on the logistics costs -it's not the same France to Germany than, let's say, US to Cyprus).