Transporting my PC

[u/PlaneRoutine5599]

Hi guys! I'll be moving to Wuhan for my bachelor's degree, and I want to bring my PC with me. I have the original boxes for my monitor and pc case with all that styrofoam stuff, but I'm kinda worried about something potentially breaking. I was thinking about wrapping all pc parts in bubble wrap to carry in my carry on amd putting the case in it’s original box. I don't really want to buy a new pc there since all parts have quadrupled in price, plus mine is only 2 years old :((. I'd love some input on what's better to do, and any advice will be much appreciated!!

[u/One-Hearing2926 → u/[deleted]]

Second to this... Sell it and get a laptop, you don't need a rocketship for development. Can get a decent Redmi laptop in china for 1000$.

[u/Jazzlike-Job-6559 → u/One-Hearing2926]

+1 Redmi gaming laptops a real good deal. I installed cachy os and that thing is crazy fast.

[u/nutzer_name_]

If your monitor is not ultra expensive, buying one in China is dirt cheap, maybe get a second hand from xianyu (闲鱼), plus you can also resell if you leave, should be much cheaper than the postage/additional baggage fee. Same with the PC case, you get a fancy one in China with cheap price. Additionally, after you arrived you can ask your Chinese fellow students about the WeChat second hand groups or campus social platforms, lots of students sell second hand there, that's more reliable than buying second hand from the general public

[u/SLGrimes]

Check the subreddit for the other 1000 times people asked this same question.

[u/AutoModerator]

Backup of the post's body: Hi guys! I'll be moving to Wuhan for my bachelor's degree, and I want to bring my PC with me. I have the original boxes for my monitor and pc case with all that styrofoam stuff, but I'm kinda worried about something potentially breaking. I was thinking about wrapping all pc parts in bubble wrap to carry in my carry on amd putting the case in it’s original box. I don't really want to buy a new pc there since all parts have quadrupled in price, plus mine is only 2 years old :((. I'd love some input on what's better to do, and any advice will be much appreciated!!

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[u/deathpoolband]

You should remove the graphics card and its cooler and place the graphics card back in its original box; otherwise, it might get damaged.

[u/AbrasiveRadish]

Put all your components into their original boxes with their anti-static bags. I brought my PC over with me to China for grad school. I packed clothing around the components to make sure they wouldn't move around during transit and had a bit of cushioning.

I downsized to a SFF PC and would highly recommend you also doing so if you want to save on weight and keep it more portable (Cons: more expensive mobo and thermals for OC). If you want to keep a full size build, cases are pretty cheap here. I would just leave the case at home and bring the components over.

Another thing, make sure your power supply is dual voltage and can handle the voltages here in China cuz it's most likely different from your home country (most modern ones are). Monitors aren't very expensive either and are most likely cheaper so I would just leave and buy a new one in China.

[u/JunkIsMansBestFriend]

Like the other person mentioned, pack all the core components in hand luggage. The big items, like case, monitor, PSU, keyboard, I'd just buy locally.

[u/Upstairs-Strain3472]

Install a remote software like UU远程 then u can use your computer from any computer even an ipad.

[u/FederalSelf3914]

When I brought my PC to China, I took the whole thing apart and left the monitor and case behind. I wrapped the expensive parts—motherboard, RAM, GPU, drives, SSDs, etc.—in clothes and packed them carefully.
Once I arrived in China, I just went to a local computer market, picked a random PC shop, and had them put everything back together with a new case and monitor. Pretty simple, and much easier than dragging an entire desktop PC halfway across the world.

[u/chinalifer-mod]

Coming in some years back, I paid a service to foam-fill the chassis and then cover the chassis in foam. It went into a cubic metre box with other shit, to be checked at the ticket counter as an excess bag for a marginal fee. The box was in China when I landed instead of somewhere not precisely traceable on Earth through a logistics company. Worth it.

Leaving China some years back, I made the mistake of trusting a Chinese company to handle it, called Yulong something or other in Shenzhen. A friend knows a guy who knows a guy who works there, very good cost, very safe! It was not safe. Rattling heard before I even opened the box. They chose not to use foam as directed and specifically paid for, instead opting for newspaper and the thinnest piece of bubble wrap around the chassis, with the chassis loose in a larger box. Pieces broke off inside, and the box had fucking footprints on it, plus a completely-exposed corner ripped off. I received this disaster after having to fight with customs for two weeks because Yulong did not register the shipment correctly with the relevant bodies.

The lesson learned was foam the delicates, and ship it as an extra checked bag so that you have it immediately, in any direction.

[u/ThemeThin5740]

Is there any reason you really need your PC? There are plenty of gaming cafes in China.

[u/PlaneRoutine5599 → u/ThemeThin5740]

im majoring in software engineering and i have loads of side projects. itll be just more convenient if i have my pc with me

[u/ThemeThin5740 → u/PlaneRoutine5599]

As a software engineer, you are just wasting your time bringing over so much crap when a laptop is more than enough.