i’m going to the US for an extended visit. I’d like to bring my desktop pc but it is to much to move the big box. Which of the innards should i remove and carry over to rebuild. Can i just bring the internal hard drive? Or should i bring over the power thing, ram chips, cd drive, and anything else too?
You need the motherboard, including CPU and RAM, no need to remove them from the the motherboard.
Hard disks - definitely take with you because they have all your stuff on.
CD Drive - possibly, it might be cheaper to buy a new one when you arrive.
Graphics/sound/network cards - I would take those with you, they aren’t heavy.
PSU - Leave that behind and get a new one, it’s very heavy.
Depends on what kind of hardware you have now. If it’s something special or cutting edge you should take it, if it’s just run of the mill stuff, just bring the HDD for the data. Check some prices on-line to see what it will cost you to replace everything once you get home, then decide.
A agree with Big Fluffy Matthew!
… and treefour!
thanks!
i was just looking into how to rebuild and see this “Most electrically sensitive hardware comes in a static bag which is designed to protect the electronics from static electricity shock. Leave your hardware in these bags until you are ready to install them.”
should i transport the motherboard in a “static bag”? If so, where would one pick up such a thing?
Static bags are for wimps, you can zap RAM chips with a Van der Graff generator and it will still work. I just put the motherboard in the box it came it. I’ve never broken anything with my static discharges. Some odds and sods shop in Nova or on Bade road might have the bags if you want to be on the safe side.
You could replace everything except your hard disk, but getting Windows to work on a new motherboard is not so easy, the most reliable way entails a reinstall. So I don’t recommend changing it.
Static may cause damage that is not immediately apparent but will shorten the life-time of the equipment, so I suggest to use a static bag or box.
Can’t you just e-mail it?
I agree but I’ve never really carried ram or a mobo half way around the world, better to be safe than sorry and pick up the static bags.
I threw a whole box into a large suitcase once. But first, I unplugged all the wires (power, drive, sound, etc.) on the inside of the box, and filled it with clothes! A desktop is mostly empty space, so if you through the whole thing into a suitcase, you can do what I did and get some use of that space.
Having said that, they’re lowering the weight limits on luggage. My suggestion may no longer be practical. Why not just get an 80gig usb drive?
Do you know about portableapps? You can put everything you need on even a 4gig pen drive. Check out portableapps.com . I would never again move a whole desktop computer. There’s no point. http://portableapps.com/
Did you build this computer yourself? If it has a particularly large/heavy heatsink on the CPU, you should take it off before shipping it or sticking it in your luggage. Otherwise it might break off and damage other parts of the computer while in transit.
Just remember to put it back on when you are in the US!