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Shipping a Computer
TychoCelchuuu
PIGEONRegistered User regular
PIGEONRegistered User regular
I have a desktop computer that needs to get from Missouri to Washington state. The way I see it, I have three options:
1. Disassemble the entire thing, stick everything in the original packaging, and ship it all. Pros: nothing will break. Cons: time consuming, a bit more expensive, larger box to ship.
2. Take out the fragile bits and the hard drive, ship those in their boxes, and ship the rest of the computer in one piece in the box the case came in. Pros: fragile stuff is out of there, much much much less time consuming. Cons: Still have to open up the case and take a bunch of stuff out, and still have to ship multiple boxes.
3. Just ship the thing. Pros: easy! Cons: What if something comes loose?
I have no experience shipping anything like this. To get it TO Missouri, I disassembled/reassembled everything and it wasn't awful but I could save myself a few hours if this is unecessary in part or in whole. I understand that premade system vendors ship fully assembled computers all the time and they don't have any problems. Is there any reason why I can't do this?
1. Disassemble the entire thing, stick everything in the original packaging, and ship it all. Pros: nothing will break. Cons: time consuming, a bit more expensive, larger box to ship.
2. Take out the fragile bits and the hard drive, ship those in their boxes, and ship the rest of the computer in one piece in the box the case came in. Pros: fragile stuff is out of there, much much much less time consuming. Cons: Still have to open up the case and take a bunch of stuff out, and still have to ship multiple boxes.
3. Just ship the thing. Pros: easy! Cons: What if something comes loose?
I have no experience shipping anything like this. To get it TO Missouri, I disassembled/reassembled everything and it wasn't awful but I could save myself a few hours if this is unecessary in part or in whole. I understand that premade system vendors ship fully assembled computers all the time and they don't have any problems. Is there any reason why I can't do this?
TychoCelchuuu on
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Also - there is no reason you can't ship it assembled, but if it doesn't immediately turn on when it's taken out of the packaging check for loose connections before jumping to conclusions.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
And however you ship it you'll want to make sure to get insurance on it.
I shipped my monitors in-packaging -- could have shipped the case, too, but I wanted a new one anyway, so I ordered one and pointed the shipping information at my temporary residence, so it would be there when I arrived.
This method worked very well for me, and is good, psychologically, for those that worry about the treatment of shipped / luggage items.
Exactly.
For reference, I shipped my computer a few thousand miles via Purolator (only because I got a discount) and although it arrived quite damaged, virtually everything does here. What ended up happening is that the box was dropped, and the video card got bent and probably cracked the circuit board in the impact, most likely due to the weight of the cooler.
But all I did was take my case, and put it into the box the case came in (complete with stryofoam and such), and shipped it like that. Obviously I requested extra insurance (be SURE to do this!) which covered all the above damage.
The only other advice I have is to be cautious - I remember reading a line in the insurance contract that any items not shipped in their "original packaging" could be considered improperly packaged, and any claim automatically declined. I'm assuming it's not something they do often, but if you're looking at using a different box, it's something to consider.
I'll say that I did ship mine out from NY to CA by just packing it very tightly in styrofoam & a big cardboard box, and it survived alright (although my graphics card fan and psu wound up dying a few months later, which could or could not be related)
Read the policy very carefully; when I looked into it I was fairly positive that electronics/computers were specifically excluded from being covered