So I have a job that will be getting me out of the US. For most things I’m not to worried, except for my computer. What would be the best way to securely move it and also not potentially worry about damaging it?
It’ll be a given that I have an encrypted off-site (cloud) back up, but I’m torn about removing the drives to hand carry and then shipping the chassis. My only worry about that would be customs stopping me because of carrying hard drives… more specifically 3x M.2, which I’m not as worried about and 4x 2.5” SSDs
Thoughts?
Definitely take the GPU out and heatsink off the CPU, when it gets banged around both of those things because of their mass can fuck up your motherboard. I moved a lot for about a decade of my lifr and had multiple desktops get fucked up.
I’d also check these out: https://www.amazon.com/Shipping-Temperature-Expanding-Packaging-Instant/dp/B0C5J8VYL3
When I briefly moved to US end 1990s I put the motherboard and hard drives in hand luggage so I only had to buy the chassis and power supply there. This earned me a wipedown for explosive traces at the control. Asking “this is because of Lockerby, isn’t it?” did not help things.
Why would you remove them?
I carried my drives and GPU in my carry on and shipped the PC. That’s what I’d recommend.
I get the drives, by why the GPU? Not like that can reconstruct what it was used to calculate.
It’s heavy, hanging from a flimsy PCIe slot held in by one screw. It’s like having a wrecking ball inside your computer tethered by cotton. It’s not for data security, it’s to stop it from demolishing the motherboard with one heavy jolt.
Yup, exactly this. It’s also the most expensive component so if the PC were to get lost, I’d at least still have the GPU.
If they’re not mechanical droves, why are you worried? They could be thrown around and be just fine.
Image the drives to cloud storage and ship all of the hardware with insurance (wipe the drives before shipping if you’re worried about data security).
SSDs are incredibly resilient to shock and would be the least likely component to fail from rough shipping. Insurance covers you on everything else.
unless you’re moving to the middle of the desert, leave “the computer” (desktop? glass case? server rack? windows? linux? what?) behind and just bring the drives, then buy the other stuff locally.
Carry drives in your carry-on. You are unlikely to be stopped. Worth encrypting them and backing them up remotely though if you are worried about it.
Leave it as is. Get some ESD safe packing material to immobilize any parts that might flex too much (GPU, CPU cooler). Or just remove and pack them.
I think the stuff is called Instapak expanding foam. Personally I think I’d remove the GPU and any mechanical drives to play it safe, but I’ve had a PC shipped to me before fully assembled with Instapak around the GPU (no HDDs, only SSDs) and it was fine. Ideally ship it in the original box for the PC case.
Instapak
Everyone should own one of these.
The Instapak stuff I’m thinking of was basically medium sized bags that acted like a heat pack, where you break something inside the bag to combine two chemicals then shake it, which makes it expand and harden quickly.
