Transporting Desktop Computer by plane - good or bad experiences?

[notrich]

flying back to the city i just moved to...

trying to figure out a way to move it (desktop computer) without shipping it by fedex... I was thinking about removing the harddrive from the desktop box and carrying it in my computer bag (less jostling around).

then putting the desktop in one of the two bags fly free deal in checked baggage - with the hard drive removed it shouldn't be too horrible a ride for the box right?

I will probably give the screen to a neighbor and just buy another one - need to upgrade anyways.


anyone had this situation before (moving by airplane)? - in the past whenever i moved there was a truck or car that i loaded up myself.  in this most recent move it didn't make sense to hire a truck to move just a few things that i cared about.  better to just throw out (give away) the old crap and buy (less) new crap.

[gellar]

It will be as good as your ability to package it.  It's gonna get thrown around a bit.

[USMC Kato]

I would recommend removing as much as you possibly can i.e. ram, video card. 

[Harkonis]

I would recommend removing as much as you possibly can i.e. ram, video card. 

definitely this.  It WILL take shock damage and the less components that can jostle free and bang into other stuff the better.

[Doopri]

long ago i used to carry entire towers in carry on - and not these modern day lil' guys, i'm talking old school behemoths

[Tokek]

I took my gaming PC with me when I went back to Indonesia a couple of years back in my checked luggage and it survived OK. I made sure to cover it with clothes so it wouldn't get too banged up but I left all the parts inside, just made sure they're all tight before I packed it.

My dad also carried a PC back with him in his checked luggage a few years ago and we took apart the video card, ram, hard drive, etc, and that too survived the deal.

[notrich]

long ago i used to carry entire towers in carry on - and not these modern day lil' guys, i'm talking old school behemoths

they must have had different size carryons?  mine is a normal sized desktop and won't fit in the standard big carryon bag

I took my gaming PC with me when I went back to Indonesia a couple of years back in my checked luggage and it survived OK. I made sure to cover it with clothes so it wouldn't get too banged up but I left all the parts inside, just made sure they're all tight before I packed it.

My dad also carried a PC back with him in his checked luggage a few years ago and we took apart the video card, ram, hard drive, etc, and that too survived the deal.

i removed the harddrive and dvd player and put them in my carryon... wrapped my desktop in clothes to help cushion it... put some ductape on the corners of some parts to help keep them in... wrapped up wires pretty tight so they wouldnt fling around

and i got a friendly card from tsa saying they examined my bag lol


i am typing this on the desktop in my new town...  only problem is i plugged in harddrive only and it seems like it triggered the "genuine windows validation program"

I was able to activate my windows via the popup (since my computer changed significantly??  all same parts except for a new keyboard), but MSE is saying that it still isnt genuine

UGH  (this winxp)