How to ship your PC?

[cbhm]

So I built a PC, college semester ended, and I mailed it home to myself. Upon receiving my PC, there was damage on the box indicating it had been dropped on its side. The side panel broke with my CPU HSF deformed and bent into my mobo, my graphics card broken. Anyway, I filed an insurance claim with USPS and I should be getting my check soon. Any similar sad stories such as this?

Summer will end, and I will fly back to school and will have build a new rig. Should I pay for UPS special care shipping where I just drop off my PC, and they pack the entire thing themselves for a fee, while guarantying its safe trip, or should I wrap everything up individually and ship separately?

 

[pous]

So I built a PC, college semester ended, and I mailed it home to myself. Upon receiving my PC, there was damage on the box indicating it had been dropped on its side. The side panel broke with my CPU HSF deformed and bent into my mobo, my graphics card broken. Anyway, I filed an insurance claim with USPS and I should be getting my check soon. Any similar sad stories such as this?

Summer will end, and I will fly back to school and will have build a new rig. Should I pay for UPS special care shipping where I just drop off my PC, and they pack the entire thing themselves for a fee, while guarantying its safe trip, or should I wrap everything up individually and ship separately?

Depends on the cost of your rig for one. Also depends on how much they charge to insure it/pack it.

Say your rig is like, $1,000.. and you pay $100 to insure it... if it comes to you messed up, you get the check for $1,000 but you are out the $100 insurance fee... unless some of it is salvageable, in which case you may come out ahead... it's a crap-shoot either way.

The other option, is to try shipping it in the box that the case came in, some are better than others as far as packaging, but it might be a viable option.

I hope that helped, it's getting late, I'm getting tired, and I'm not entirely sure if it made sense or not... either way though, best of luck to you (=

 

[croc]

Get some nice, flexible antistatic film. 1x1 meter should be a good size sheet. Now carefully fold it all around your HSF, between all your cards, tuck it nicely partway between your HDd's, etc. Now get some pour in place foam (comes in two parts), pour in the recommended amount, put another sheet of the film over your side panel but do not lock the panel in place. The foam will expand, pushing into all the nooks and crannies, and probably pushing upwards on the side panel. Wait for it to set and cure, trim down the excess, and carefully pull the form out of your case.

Now you have a custom made shipping container for the inside of your case.

Repeat the process with your case box, find a good sturdy box that is say 5cm larger in all dimensions than the shipping carton your case came in. Wrap the inside of the larger box with more of your film, and also wrap your case's shipping box as well. (Do this without the computer in its box.... Obvious in next step)

Pour in some more of your foam, with the computer case squarely in the middle, and let the foam expand up around the case. Patience, You'll have to hold it still for say, 5 min.'s until it sets. Hopefully it doesn't fill the outer box quite to the top... One more time, more plastic tucked down to meet your previous pour, with plenty of overlap to fold over and cover the rest of the inside of your case. More foam, fold over the top of your outer box and apply some pressure...

After this pour sets, carefully pry off your 'lid', lift out your inner case, and voila'! You now have spent half an afternoon, a few $, but you have a pretty safe, totally re-usable packing case.

 

[cbhm]

well, i did ship it with its original packaging...with fragile stamps on all six sides...but i think the package might have been too heavy for the old usps guy and he dropped it...

anyway, thanks for the replies, i will definitely try the place foam packing. i will also make sure to insure it for what its worth + the insurance fee.

 

[Bettybee]

I had the same problem transporting my laptop to school! So i've looked into so many different laptop cases to use and then i found out about OtterBox! They have a laptop case thats $170. You can seriously stand on the case and your laptop will be ok. Here's the website www.otterbox.com. you should check it out!

 

[darkangelism]

he has a tower not a laptop. I would say do it the same way you did the first time, odds are it wont break every time.

 

[Kronos76]

Get some nice, flexible antistatic film. 1x1 meter should be a good size sheet. Now carefully fold it all around your HSF, between all your cards, tuck it nicely partway between your HDd's, etc. Now get some pour in place foam (comes in two parts), pour in the recommended amount, put another sheet of the film over your side panel but do not lock the panel in place. The foam will expand, pushing into all the nooks and crannies, and probably pushing upwards on the side panel. Wait for it to set and cure, trim down the excess, and carefully pull the form out of your case.

Now you have a custom made shipping container for the inside of your case.

Repeat the process with your case box, find a good sturdy box that is say 5cm larger in all dimensions than the shipping carton your case came in. Wrap the inside of the larger box with more of your film, and also wrap your case's shipping box as well. (Do this without the computer in its box.... Obvious in next step)

Pour in some more of your foam, with the computer case squarely in the middle, and let the foam expand up around the case. Patience, You'll have to hold it still for say, 5 min.'s until it sets. Hopefully it doesn't fill the outer box quite to the top... One more time, more plastic tucked down to meet your previous pour, with plenty of overlap to fold over and cover the rest of the inside of your case. More foam, fold over the top of your outer box and apply some pressure...

After this pour sets, carefully pry off your 'lid', lift out your inner case, and voila'! You now have spent half an afternoon, a few $, but you have a pretty safe, totally re-usable packing case.

I have to ship a PC to a friend and I hadn't even thought about this. All in all it sounds simple enough, Nice Post... Thanks

 

[nevesis]

i would take my box on as my carry on!!!

 

[Wolfshadw]

Just a quick note:

I've shipped UPS before. They cover the first $100 of insurance. Beyond that, it's $1 per $100 insured. So if you have a $1200 rig, it will cost you $11 to insure your package for $1200.

Probably the best thing you could do, though, is disassemble your rig; down to removing the motherboartd from the case. Put the components into individual static free bags or better yet, the original packaging (yeah, I know... not likely, but if you do...) and have the shipping company package everything up.

Yes, this is going to cost more, but it's a small price to pay, IMO, for getting your rig back to you with all parts still functioning.

-Wolf sends

 

[rammedstein]

generally when i ship computers or computer parts i individually wrap all parts in bubble wrap and stick them in a box, that way, the only this that could get hurt is the harddrive... never had any problems with that though...

 

[asvcs]

Go with Fedex. We have not had any damaged PC's when shipped through them. UPS has damaged about 10% of our shipments of PC's, and when they ship it back for repair estimates they don't secure anything so you get even a more damaged PC back. Plus you wait at least a month to get a check sent, because they try to prove it was not properly packed. Note: if your case is screwless, usually the case has screw holes also, so secure your drives and cards before shipping.

 

[Bettybee]

OOPS! Sorry i thought you were trying to transport your laptop!