Packing PC for Ryanair flight

bazpaul1

Hey lads whats the craic?

So I'm moving to London and really wanna bring my fancy new PC and not my ****ty old laptop. So how should I pack it? and also do Ryanair have any problems with PC's being carried in the hold.

I have a DELL T3400 wrokstation

Here's what i'm thinking:

1. remove hard drive, sound card, graphics card
2. place cards/drives in anti-staic bags and place in carry-on for safe keeping
3. cut out pieces of solid styrofoam and fill the empty spaces.
4. Fill any gaps with 'popcorn' styrofoam
5. seal the case
6. put case in the centre of a hard top suitcase
7. surround case with socks, towels, crumpled newspaper, bubblewrap
8. Pray

I read online that you must be careful of the motherboard - too much movement could damage it. I dont want to removed the heat sink and motherboard however. I'm hoping to pad it up.

What's your advice?

Did you do this before?

Cheers:cool:

bonzodog2

I'd remove the HD and just do 6 & 7

bazpaul1

really? what about the motherboard rattling around?

Have you done it before?

We all know what the baggage handlers are like - throwing sh!t all over the place!!!

gugleguy

do you really have to fly ? i mean going by boat - what about taking the stena dublin/ holyhead ferry?

bazpaul1

I only thought about that after I booked the stupid Ryanair flight!!!

I might pop up to PC world and try get some bubble wrap, static bags and advice!!

bonzodog2

bazpaul1 wrote: »

really? what about the motherboard rattling around?

Have you done it before?

We all know what the baggage handlers are like - throwing sh!t all over the place!!!

In order:....

How is the mobo going to rattle around? Its screwed into the case.

No I have never sent a PC by air in the hold of a plane. Ryanair or otherwise. This is just my opinion.

Thats what all your socks/bubblewrap/newspapers are for.




Hope it works out OK for ya.
If you're really paranoid about it, strip it down to just the case and PSU and bring the mobo and all the cards in your carryon baggage.

niallb

Bring the HD carefully packed in your luggage if you like, but ship the rest of it to London. You could get it shipped for €25 and it'd save you a load of hassle.
I'd advise getting it insured as well though, which would be another €50 or so for a PC worth €1000. Don't expect to be getting the replacement value if it's damaged by Ryanair either.

Even better bet than taking out the harddrive at all would be to back it up to an external drive and carry that. Then the PC is intact and if anything happens it you'll be restoring to a new one anyway.

Mat the trasher

Hi,
My colleagues and I regularly pack our work laptop in our cases, for long haul and multi stop journeys, I've never have taken out the HD and its packed in the standard HP shoulder carry bag.
Haven't had any problems yet.

niallb

The OP isn't talking about a laptop. It's a pretty big workstation.