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Ideas for Long Distance Transport and Temporary Storage (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by naate@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/homelab@selfhosted.forum

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I'm in the process of packing and moving cross-country (US, 2300 mi/3700 km) and I need to figure out how to safely move my gear.

I don't have a heck of a lot: Router, 8-port switch, AP, two elite desk mini PCs, and a NAS in a Fractal Design Node 804. These are all on a small cheap-o rack. I also have 2 gaming PCs we need to keep safe, too.

We're using some U-Box/Pods for the bulk of the move (weather resistant, stored indoors, but not temperature controlled), and then driving 2 cars 4-8 weeks later. Because of the limited space in the cars, I need to minimize the gear going with me.

My biggest concern is how to secure the hard drives. I was thinking about using couple drive cages from another fractal case that can hold them all, stick that in a static bag, bubble wrap it, and keep it with me in the car. Same with our video cards in the gaming PCs. Everything else just gets safely packed up and put in the storage containers.

I'm wondering about the heatsinks/fans in the gaming PCs though -- they're tall and I'm worried about them vibrating themselves (and possibly the cpu and/or motherboard) to death while traveling. Everything else should be reasonably safe.

It's not feasible for us to keep all of this stuff in the cars with us due to all of our day-to-day belongings that will be there. Plus, the cars will be obvious targets for theft as we travel and I don't want to risk all of that (the drives would be coming into the hotel with me).

Thoughts? Other ideas? Thanks :)

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[–] CondorWonder@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I’ve done a couple of cross continent moves now with movers moving my stuff, and most things were fine - drives if they’re powered down are generally safe. The only thing that has happened is my graphics card power cable had worked itself loose and the card burned out because of it. CPU fans, hard drives, power supplies were all fine.

I’d say after you get to your destination check all the things - especially cables would have saved me a 1080 (it worked for over a year so it really wasn’t obvious from a visual inspection).

[–] naate@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Good call on the cable checking. My initial thought was "well, duh" but then I realized it hadn't occurred to me. So, thank you for that!

I'll probably secure the video cards separately, just because I hate how "loose" they feel when installed correctly and remaining untouched, let alone being moved by forklifts and on a flatbed trailer for over 30 hours.

[–] Cobrachicken@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

I'd remove heavy video cards entirely. When we ship installed cards its always with foam bags in the case so they don't rip off the PCIe connector.