Shipping a PC Internationally?

[HerrBobo]

Hi All,

So, I have moved to a new country about four months ago.

I have been gaming a little here and there, but I'm very limited on this laptop. During the current Steam sale I decided to down load Verdun 1914-1918 on a whim. It is a multiplayer game set in World War I. It is still in beta, so it has the odd bug here and there, but it is super realistic, yet fun! I can run it on medium settings pretty good.

It has full reignited my gaming passion though!

I have a gaming pc sitting in Ireland doing nothing. No one uses it. It has a 570GTX and 8GiG of RAM. Not cutting edge by any means, but still very capable.

I want to ship it from Ireland to the US, but I am worried about it getting damaged. I think I need a double layer heavy duty box, wrap the tower and screen in bubble wrap and used anti-static peanuts to pack the box. The real issue though, is removing the GPU and Heat sync might be beyond my brother. I was thinking that instead, he could pack the inside of the case with air bags to stop any stress on the parts.

The GPU and heat sync are massive!

[http://s439.photobucket.com/user/NoLeftTurn81/media/DSCF0137.jpg.html]

Any tips, advice or tricks are most welcome.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Disassemble it. Pull the the video card, the RAM, and the hard drives (Not really necessary for the hard drives in the bay you have). Individually wrap those components (Bubble wrap, foam, etc) and place them back in the chassis. Then pack the inside of your PC so that the wont move around (You can use shirts and the like).

Put PC in box, ship, re-assemble.

You probably don't have to remove the CPU cooler. It looks pretty low to the board. Now, if you had a Zarman, or another 'tower' cooler, that would be a different story.

That's how I'd do it anyway. If your brother can't remove parts, then yah, just pack the bastard with peanuts and hope for the best.

Hopefully you kept the box and packing material your tower came in. That makes send it a lot easier.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

As someone who worked in shipping, freight and delivery for a few years I can definitely say that if you're intending to ship surface only, you should take into consideration distance first and foremost. I worked in Australia, so a lot of foreign consumer goods were surface only or SAL (Surface Air Lifted; whether applicable in your country of origin or country of destination) and (albeit this was ten years ago) there seemed to be an average cumulative 0.25-0.5% chance of damage to sensitive goods/1000km surface shipping only. Not including the chance of missing packages.

SAL is pretty good, all things considered. From my personal experience, I go SAL when with things like Australia-Japan shipping because these two nations have trustworthy standard mail delivery networks.

For a decent PC rig I would suggest SAL transport (if applicable), but I don't see why the case itself would require anything beyond surface shipping.

You also have to think of cost. If you have recently moved and are basically living on scraps until your first few paycheques you may actually be better off shipping various parts via different means rather than just combining them into a singular package. This may or may not be cheaper depending on whether you wish to get insurance.

I would say there should be about five considerations: Reputation of delivery firm (both from where you are sending, and the intended destination. Which your package may or may not change hands between multiple delivery firms depending on location), price, cost of insuring goods (or whther it is worth your time to insure), distance (and time), sensitivity of the goods being shipped (assuming sending multiple parts or as a complete unit).

In the developed world, the no.1 cause of poor shipping incidents are incorrectly labelled goods or ill-advised postage or means of transport (and other forms of sender error). To avoid this you should do your research and think carefully about the options that you have.

 

[Hoplon]

Disassemble it. Pull the the video card, the RAM, and the hard drives (Not really necessary for the hard drives in the bay you have). Individually wrap those components (Bubble wrap, foam, etc) and place them back in the chassis. Then pack the inside of your PC so that the wont move around (You can use shirts and the like).

Put PC in box, ship, re-assemble.

You probably don't have to remove the CPU cooler. It looks pretty low to the board. Now, if you had a Zarman, or another 'tower' cooler, that would be a different story.

That's how I'd do it anyway. If your brother can't remove parts, then yah, just pack the bastard with peanuts and hope for the best.

Hopefully you kept the box and packing material your tower came in. That makes send it a lot easier.

This. every time. is only way to be sure.

 

[HerrBobo]

Thanks guys