How to pack a system for travel.

[Aircoll]

I will shortly be leaving Australia to go back to Indonesia for my summer break. I wish to bring my pc that I built a few months ago with me to Indonesia, however I don't know how I would go by packing the damn thing. My idea is that I'd pull out the hard drive and store it in my suitcase wrapped in clothes. The graphics card on the other hand was a pain in the ass to install (should have gone for a smaller form factor) as its clearance from the radiator fan is no more than 5mm, so pulling it out wont be an option. I was thinking of stuffing the underside of the gpu with bubble wrap or any packing material I have on hand as the distance between the card and the psu shroud isn't that wide. Anything else I need to worry about and/or secure? Please do let me know. Thx in advance.

 

The attachment shows what my build looks like.

[Arika]

remove GPU and pack case with packing foam/bubble wrap, store GPU separately

[Aircoll]

1 minute ago, Arika S said:

remove GPU and pack case with packing foam/bubble wrap, store GPU separately

I'll store the case back in its box and stuff it with my clothing. As for the GPU it's kind hard to pull it out without taking apart the radiator which is a pain in the arse. As I said, I was thinking of stuffing the bottom part of the GPU with bubble wrap to fill the gap between it and the PSU shroud. Would that work as well?

[N1NJ4W4RR10R]

If pulling out the GPU/radiator isn't possible, make sure that thing can't move whatsoever. 

 

It *should* be fine... although that absolutely depends on how it's being handled.

[Canada EH]

Keep the box it came in and use that!

[Arika]

3 minutes ago, Aircoll said:

I'll store the case back in its box and stuff it with my clothing. As for the GPU it's kind hard to pull it out without taking apart the radiator which is a pain in the arse. As I said, I was thinking of stuffing the bottom part of the GPU with bubble wrap to fill the gap between it and the PSU shroud. Would that work as well?

you would need to stuff the entire case if you're leaving the GPU in, not just the bottom since you would still be risking it jerking upwards and the way baggage handlers will handle the box/bag it's in, you want as little movement room as possible

[Enderman]

The GPU will probably damage the PCIe slot on your motherboard if you don't remove it.

Also don't wrap your hard drive in clothes unless you want to kill it, use a proper antistatic bag.

[Arika]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

The GPU will probably damage the PCIe slot on your motherboard if you don't remove it.

Also don't wrap your hard drive in clothes unless you want to kill it, use a proper antistatic bag.

but the static electricity will keep it powered so it doesn't lose any data

 

Spoiler

/s

 

in case it wasn't stupidly obvious

 

[corrado33]

Seriously, is 10 minutes of time worth it if you have to replace your graphics card?

 

Remove the GPU, put in antistatic bag, put in suitcase. Unsure why you want to remove the HDD, those are usually pretty solidly mounted...

[Aircoll]

21 hours ago, corrado33 said:

Unsure why you want to remove the HDD, those are usually pretty solidly mounted...

The hard drive is mounted directly to the railing in the case chassis. The case is an NZXT H200i which has a rail on the bottom of the case for mounting hard drives and such. Just afraid that as the case shakes or receives a shock on the bottom side, the hard drive will also get the shock causing it to break in some way.

[corrado33]

13 minutes ago, Aircoll said:

The hard drive is mounted directly to the railing in the case chassis. The case is an NZXT H200i which has a rail on the bottom of the case for mounting hard drives and such. Just afraid that as the case shakes or receives a shock on the bottom side, the hard drive will also get the shock causing it to break in some way.

Eh, I see. Good point.

[YaBoiWill]

You can get a bag that has an expanding agent in it, I have no idea that they're called but I received something through the post that had it.

The idea is that you get the flat bag, start it off under the gpu, activate the agent, and let the bag fill the rest of the gaps in the case. 

The foam will then go off, causing it to harden, keeping stuff in place. 

I don't know if this will protect from a drop-off the baggage belt onto the apron tho, also it might be a long way to drop if you're flying in anything other then an a320/737, which I assume you won't be for that length of journey.

[Aircoll]

I just figured out that the radiator mounting plate can be taken off. So per following previous advice, I shall take out the GPU and the HDD and put it in their respective anti-static bags and pack it inside my suitcase.

15 hours ago, YaBoiWill said:

You can get a bag that has an expanding agent in it, I have no idea that they're called but I received something through the post that had it.

Yeah this is called Instapak I believe. Tho I don't really have the time to go look for it as I have less than a week to pack.

[YaBoiWill]

3 hours ago, Aircoll said:

less than a week to pack.

Amazon/ebay

 

[N1NJ4W4RR10R]

4 hours ago, Aircoll said:

I just figured out that the radiator mounting plate can be taken off. So per following previous advice, I shall take out the GPU and the HDD and put it in their respective anti-static bags and pack it inside my suitcase.

Yeah this is called Instapak I believe. Tho I don't really have the time to go look for it as I have less than a week to pack.

I believe they're fairly expensive.

 

Nice to hear you could remove it.