Driving my rig to a new place

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iYoYo

Limp Gawd
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Jul 27, 2011
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i cant find the right place to post this so Ill just put it here. Im going to drive my computer in a 15min distance. Is there anything I should know before doing this?
 
I get that it's nerve-wracking to do this, I did the same thing earlier this year. I simply put my whole rig in the back seat of my car and padded it with pillows, so It would be protected and so it was snugly pinned into one place against the back seat. I found this easier than taking everything apart and reassembling the computer. The worst part was picking it up and physically moving it, friggin thing weighs a ton! Did the same with my brand new 30" monitor too, that was even more stressful because monitors seem more fragile.

Just drive slow and careful, choose a route that has the smoothest roads as possible, and you will be fine.
 
what i do is put it on the floor of the rear seat upright and move the passenger seat back untill it squeezes it against the rear bench. cant move.
 
a driver is possible actually, so what do you think about me just holding it?

EDIT:
I can also take off the GPU if I want to since I plan to do so
 
Procyon12 said:
what i do is put it on the floor of the rear seat upright and move the passenger seat back untill it squeezes it against the rear bench. cant move.
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Personally I wouldn't do that. You have all the weight of the CPU heatsink plus gravity that
is ready to torque itself with the motherboard which is not a problem in a static setting. However, you hit some bumps or go over some railroad tracks and if the case is vertical just you've added more downward force to the equation. I have seen cases where traveling with even tightly secured CPU heatsinks caused the motherboards to warp enough that they failed.

What I usually do is just remove the CPU heatsink and lay the computer on its side, obviously with the motherboard side nearest the seat so gravity isn't working against you. For a long car trip as part of an 8-hour move, I also removed the hard drives (all 8 of them) and put them in a little cardboard hard drive case which I kept secured. The heads were parked but it just made me feel better. Just my opinon.
 
I personally transport my rig like once a week (usually only like 5km). I just put it upright against the backseat and drive carefully. Depending on the size of your case, you can strap it in using the seat belt.

So really, don't worry too much. I have literally done it a hundred times, and never have I had a problem.
 
If it's the heatsink troubling you, why not just put the case on its side, so any bumps won't affect the heatsink? Problem solved :)
 
Lay it on it's side so all PCI slots and CPU coolers face up. I put mine inside my old USMC flight bag in the back seat and buckle it in. Honestly, I travel with my wc'ed rig all the time, land and air and never really worried about it, other than just the surface finish from scratches.
 
I lay it on the back seat and put the seat belt around it, then drive normally. Nothing bad has ever happened in multiple trips. If the heatsink is not an issue, such as in stock heatsinks, then behind the seat method works great.

Think about all the full systems from newegg, amazon and dell that arrive without issue after being manhandled by UPS/FedEx etc.
 
I've routinely been dragging my desktop to bi monthly lan parties up to an hour away for over a decade. Front seat floorboard works pretty well. Keeps it from slamming into the. dashboard when you slide to a stop at 4 am trying not to hit a deer.

I've also strapped it to the back of a motorcycle and made the same trip. In the rain. :D

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I wouldn't recommend the sleeping in a mcdonalds parking lot because it's too foogy to see more than 20 feet part.
 
I threw mine in the passenger seat and buckled it up so it wouldn't go flying (I drive like an asshole). No problems. Had a giant TRUE heatsink on it to. CPU coolers mount with so much force I can't ever see them being an issue.
 
15 mins dude? Really? Are you jumpng off ramps and shit? Lay it on it's side and don't drive like a manic.
 
dont hate guys, Im just being cautious since I just broke a motherboard...thats inside a case...never turned on... the seller says its fully functional when it left him so I guess its my fault.
 
I used to transport my PC every 2 or 3 weeks on about a 40-60 minute drive of about 40km (25 miles for all you septics). It started with the stock E6600 cooler, but it had a Noctua U12P cooler on it for most of that time, though I might have swapped to the Xigmatek Thor's Hammer toward the end when I got my i5 750, dont remember exactly.

In the beginning I'd put it in the box which the case came in and threw it in the boot of my car. As I started to care less I just started throwing it behind the passenger seat of my car, jammed between the back of the passenger seat and the front of the back seat so it wouldn't move.

Never had an issue with doing that with my Sonata 3 case, though the shitty screwless PCI mounts on my Utgard case were a bit more problematic and with that I just had to double check the PCI cards before switching it on, no biggy.

If you had an epic large cooler (the Noctua and Thor's hammer were pretty big, I mean epic big like a Coolermaster V10) I'd consider being a bit more careful. Also if you're worried you could jam something between the cooler and the side of the case and lash it together with twist ties, preventing the cooler from vibrating or flopping around (something like polystyrene, though maybe something less static-attracting than polystyrene :p). Though I never did that and I never had any issues in my 3 or 4 years of transporting my PC every few weeks, and I drive like a maniac :p

I know some PC retailers will send built PCs via courier, though I remember one place specifically saying on their site they wont ship computers with V10 coolers because they'd had an instance where it had been damaged in transit due to the sheer weight of it. Also I remember the PCs we got at the University were couriered to us by van and they were all prebuilt with Noctua D14s on them, 5 computers and they all arrived safely inside the original box the case came in. I doubt the shop would have risked it if they though they might get damaged as they were about $3000 each.
 
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This, shit i even moved my Antec 1200 in the passenger seat of my Miata.....only fit 1 direction, and it still works :D

Idef1x said:
I personally transport my rig like once a week (usually only like 5km). I just put it upright against the backseat and drive carefully. Depending on the size of your case, you can strap it in using the seat belt.

So really, don't worry too much. I have literally done it a hundred times, and never have I had a problem.
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i lay my rig in the front seat with PCI cards facing up and then stap it down with bungee cords, then drive carefully at 85Mph :p monitor goes on the back seat standing up, padded with pillows and buckled up.

also a couple friends and me (about 4-5 years ago), we drove 19 hours to a 3-day LAN party with 3 boxes and 3 LCDs in the trunk. all boxes standing up and my rig was WCd :p
 
I drove 8 hours with my rig in the trunk and it was all good. Just make sure it doesn't bounce around.
 
The shuttle pc that runs in place of a head unit in my van has done thousands of miles,every thing from smooth tarmac to rough winding roads through the hills. on top of that there usually isn't a huge amount of weight in the back so the suspension rides fairly hard. PC is just wedged under the front seat, no extra cushioning. It is running a 2.5" disk but that has been going strong for about 3 years.

PC's are generally tougher than you expect
 
If your really paranoid about it you can just take off the heatsink, video card(s), and hard dirves and put them in their own padded boxes. I made a 19 hour journey with both of my computers laying on their sides with everything facing up, no problems. As others have said just be careful and all will be fine.
 
Is your system water cooled? Are you worried about fittings coming lose?

plunger said:
Stop being such a pansy and just put it in the trunk and drive off. FFS.
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If it's an air cooled system, then This^^^

I travel around the country and sometimes the world for a living. And yes, I do travel a desktop. The one in this thread (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1586412) to be exact (pics @ bottom). I have been doing this for almost 5 years now, and have never had any problems what so ever.

Flights, buses, dragging it around in a carry-on through the airport,and down the street, rock solid. The computer in that thread has been to Australia, The UK, France, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, and almost every country in South America. And coast to coast in the US many times over. I literally put it in a carry on piece of luggage, and throw it in the overhead compartment of the plane. The looks I get going through the TSA checkpoints are classic

One time I thought for sure that it was going to get destroyed going through the checked baggage system for Delta. I was actually looking forward to it, because I could build a new one with the settlement money, but alas, it booted up perfectly as always.

Seriously man, unless you drop it, or get rear ended, just throw it in the trunk and you'll be fine.

Edit: One time I did have a problem with the power button getting stuck, but I still think that one of the people I had over spilled beer on it.
 
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put it wherever it will fit, on it's side, CPU cooler and expansion cards facing up so gravity wont rip them up.

Good to go.
 
I flew with my rig and a few of the push pins came off the cpu cooler. It should be fine in your car.
 
Wow, this is actually a serious post? What a joke. You will die long before anything in that pc gets damaged from riding in a vehicle. The only part that would have a possibility of being damaged from a giant bump would be a mechanical hard drive. The head could scratch the platter. Then again it's 2012 why wouldn't you be using SSD or shock protection.
 
There is nothing you should worry about. However, put it to trunk, no to backseats! For your personal safety. There was an accident where a guy crashed, but what killed him was laptop flown from backseat hitting and smashing his head and I'm sure you don't want that either.

No to mention that either full branded computers or just components travel thousands of miles every day with trains or trucks to reach the location they are shipped to. Nothing will happen to it.
 
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I took my rig on a 2 day drive in the trunk of my car from florida to ny the just 3 hours after buying all the parts and putting them into the case lo never even booted it up till i was home in ny just make sure its not gonna be banging around i also like to buckle it or bungee it down were ever it is for a lil extra safety.
 
Whenver I move my PC tower around, I just put it in the front seat and use the seat belt. As long as you use screws to hold down the peripheral cards, they shouldn't do any damage inside. Another option is to lay it down (motherboard side down) so that heavy heat sinks and gpu's bounce up and down, not sway up and down with bumps (if the system was standing up).
 
iYoYo said:
i cant find the right place to post this so Ill just put it here. Im going to drive my computer in a 15min distance. Is there anything I should know before doing this?
Click to expand...

I kept the original box and packaging my case was supplied in, and moved mine that way a couple of times already, the only other way I would move my system is once it has been wrapped in bubble wrap.
 
I've never had an issue transporting my rig to LAN parties. I always lay it on it's side, secure it from sliding in case I have to brake hard or swerve.
 
It will be just fine in the back seat with someone holding it still..

just dont drive like a maniac
 
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