Safest way to ship my computer to the US?

[Kurofune]

I need to ship my computer to the US. It's an mATX case with the hardware inside. I'm concerned that a quick jerk during shipment could put enough centrifugal force on the heavy CPU cooler to damage the mounting bracket or mobo. Is this a realistic concern? If so, should I take off the cooler/cpu and ship it separately? Anything else I should do to prepare it for shipment (files are already backed up)? What would be the best carrier? I don't want to use the moving company, because I don't want to be without my computer for too long. Thanks.

[Big Booger]

I took my full tower onboard the airplane in a large carry-on. It weighed a ton but I got it on with all 4 hard drives, a DVDrom, a CDRW, and several PCI cards, PSU, everything. It wall worked fine. No worries, but this was pre 9/11... now you try that today, and they may take you in for a talk it depends on the analness of the screener. :P

Best thing to do would be to put the PC back in the original box (if you have it) and ship it.

if not break it down and send it home piece by piece. Insurance is a must. Use bubble wrap out the ass and anti-static bags.

Should do you nicely.

[Caustic Saint]

1. Remove the drives and put them in your carry-on bag (antistatic and bubblewrap packed).
2. Pull all the cards (video, network, sound, etc) out and pack them in bubblewrap & anti-static bags.
3. Ditto for the motherboard.
4. Ship those home via insured mail or UPS/DHL/etc.
5. Stuff the cables/heatsink/cooling fan in your suitcaste.
6. Same for the mouse and keyboard if you're really attached to them.
7. Throw your case away (or sell it). They're cheap enough that unless you've got some crazy modded case it's not worth the expense of sending it home.
8. Buy a new case when you get home and reassemble everything.

[Taro Toporific]

Best thing to do would be to put the PC back in the original box (if you have it) and ship it.
Should do you nicely.

The orginal box is the best, even if you have to beg or buy one off a local dealer which is what I did (which is sort how I met Mrs. Taro working for Apple Japan when begging for a box hee, hee and asking for urrr, umm "trial" software). I used to drag my Mac SE back and forth the Pacific in it's original box as checked luggage an covered by a $10 "rider" to my homeowner's insurance. The worst thing that happened in 6 trips was a CPU became unseated...that was very easy to troubleshoot.

[Socratesabroad]

I took my full tower onboard the airplane in a large carry-on. It weighed a ton but I got it on with all 4 hard drives, a DVDrom, a CDRW, and several PCI cards, PSU, everything. It well worked fine. No worries, but this was pre 9/11... now you try that today, and they may take you in for a talk it depends on the analness of the screener. :P
Should do you nicely.

I have to concur. I just moved from Japan to China and shipped both ATX towers with me on-board the same flight. I did provide ample padding inside the cases to keep cards and drives from shifting around and I bolted (screwed, really) everything down. Based on weight, the price was higher than mail fees, obviously, but 1) I had no problems at all and 2) the piece of mind may be worth it.

I've heard people suggest chucking the case, which sounds good, but if you have a case with color, dimensions, and other specs you like, then you may not wish to part with the case. Besides, you'll have to factor in down-time as you search for a replacement.

Moreover, shipping the cards and motherboard home separately is a risk not worth taking since, as I mentioned, on-board shipping is based on weight.

Best of luck...

[devicenull]

remove drives, cpu, and cards... ditch the rest and buy a new case/mb back stateside.

[oyajikun]

Ditch the case and pack all the devices individually. Less chance of anything breaking and you should be able to save some ens on shipping.

*EDIT* ^^^ Like he said. lol

[Kurofune]

Thanks for the tips, everybody? I thought about ditching the case and mailing everything else back. That might be the easiest way, but I'm not sure about the cheapest. The case was 8500, and it would cost at least $60 for me to replace it. Maybe I could put the CPU and cooler in a suitcase (those are the only parts I'm concerned about) and have the case checked as a piece of luggage. If the shipping charge will be less than the loss of the case and purchase of a replacement, I think I'll do that.