Taking my Desktop PC on a plane (in the hold) yes or no?

[AshVX220]

Hi All,
I've recently moved abroad for a while and initially left my PC at home, I'm thinking of bringing it back with me when I take a brief trip to the UK in May.

Firstly, is it OK to bring a PC with me, if it's just in my suitcase?

And if so, is there anything you'd do "prep-wise" to it in readiness for the flight?

Finally, am I likely to get extra interest from Customs for bringing it over?

Cheers all
Ash

[Brigand]

From a packing point of view I'd at the very least take the hard drives out and wrap them up - they don't like being bashed about. If it's a gaming PC with a hefty graphics card I'd be tempted to take that out too and wrap it, just in case. The case itself though, a bit of bubble wrap around it should suffice.

[RobDickinson]

Make sure its well protected, the box/packaging the case came in would be ideal.

The most damage usually occurs when heatinks (CPU etc) come loose and smash around inside.

HDD's park the heads when powered down so should be ok unless it gets very violent make sure you have your data backed up.

[Saleen836]

Will there be a problem with powering it where ever you have moved?

[davepoth]

Saleen836 said:

Will there be a problem with powering it where ever you have moved?

Absolute worst case it's a change of PSU, but a lot of power supplies have a red switch on them to change from 115 to 230v operation:



So it should just be a change of kettle lead in most cases.

[AshVX220]

Saleen836 said:

Will there be a problem with powering it where ever you have moved?

I'm in the US and as I understand it, the PSU is dual power selectable, I just need to get a US kettle lead and flick a switch in the PSU. Or I'll get a new PSU.

Ha-ha, beaten to it, by seconds!

[C0ffin D0dger]

Should be fine. In the wake of 9/11 we had to go a do a rush job on some communications equipment for a very "special" customer in the States and basically had to bundle up our desktop PCs and a load of other kit to fly over there. Think we did as suggested, took the hard drives out and packaged them separately but the rest was just bubble wrapped and put in large solid Samsonite suitcases. It all made it there and back unscathed. No questions asked as to the contents despite the rather heightened security though we did get singled out for a full search (not internal ) when trying to leave the USA.

[AshVX220]

OK cool,
thanks all, looks like it's possible then, will follow everyone's advice and strip the HDD and SSD out, plus the Graphics card etc.
Cheers, virtual beers all round ()

[aka_kerrly]

AshVX220 said:

OK cool,
thanks all, looks like it's possible then, will follow everyone's advice and strip the HDD and SSD out, plus the Graphics card etc.
Cheers, virtual beers all round ()

Is the PC case something special? I'm just wondering why it wouldn't be easier to strip out the internals and put them in your carry on luggage and buy a new case in the US to reassemble with?

[RedLeicester]

Whack it in a flightcase and job done. Happens all the time.

[K50 DEL]

I've taken tower servers in my hold luggage several times, no extra precautions save for a bit of bubble-wrap
Never had any issues and, as far as I know, the servers in question are still running fine almost a decade later.

[IanH755]

"Anti-Static" bubble wrap around any components obviously

Mechanical HD's (not SSD's), RAM sticks, CPU Heatsink and Graphics card should all be removed and wrapped separately. I helped my mate do this during a 1 year move to Gibraltar and had no issues, other than his case being bloody massive!

[AnimalBob]

I flew with a desktop pc in my hand luggage to Copenhagen and back last year. No questions asked at either end.

[AshVX220]

Hey all,
thanks for the advice, I ended up just taking out the HDD, SSD and Graphics Card, bubble wrapping the lot and all was good. Got back here yesterday, put a new PSU in it and all good.
Thanks once again to all those that replied.