When packing up your PC, do you have to worry about static from the material you use to stuff the inside with?

apav

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Going to be moving cross country which is about a 30 hour drive. I'm putting my PC in the storage truck, inside its case box secured in its packaging styrofoam, laying on its side so the motherboard lays flat. I'll put it on top of some blankets to help with the vibration. I'll also be taking out my HDD, GPU and sound card. Unfortunately my massive CPU cooler was too much of a pain to install I'm afraid I won't be able to put it back on (honestly after spending half a day of trying, it was a miracle I even got it on in the first place), so I'm going to leave it on. I've read that after taking these measures and stuffing it with some packaging material described below, it should be fine.

Question about the packaging material though. This is the inside of my PC. After removing the GPU and sound card, it's probably too big of an empty space for Instapak foam to properly secure the cooler right? So I was thinking of buying some anti static bubble wrap or packaging paper instead. Anti static bubble wrap is probably a bit more cushiony, but AFAIK only one side protects against static, and I'll be bunching it up. But I'm still confused about this, do I even need to worry about static at all when this packaging material is in a metal case not connected to a power source? Which would you use?

Thanks!
 
I've shipped plenty of PC's and never packed them with anything internally. You could ship the GPU separately if you were all that concerned about damage.
 
I just use clean towels or t-shirts. As long as you use fabric softener and dont over dry them static wont be an issue.
 
Yes you do need to be concerned about static if protecting it internally.
As mentioned 100% cotton towels, shirts, jeans etc will be fine.
 
Take any big heatsinks and gpus out and you are good.
 
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If you pack it with a hunk of metal you won't have to worry about static. ;)

In that line: the more conductive the material, the less you have to worry. The more capacitive, the higher the risk. Plastics generally have high capacitance. ESD safe plastics usually have some sort of conductive film or embedded material.

It should go without saying: Remove all ESD safe packing material before powering you rig back on, or you'll release the magic smoke!
 
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If you pack it with a hunk of metal you won't have to worry about static. ;)

In that line: the more conductive the material, the less you have to worry. The more capacitive, the higher the risk. Plastics generally have high capacitance. ESD safe plastics usually have some sort of conductive film or embedded material.

It should go without saying: Remove all ESD safe packing material before powering you rig back on, or you'll release the magic smoke!
Good tips, although I will disagree on the smoke being magic... I'm no magician but I've released it more than once myself ;). They really should do a better job at the factory putting the smoke in.
 
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