The Art of Packing Computer Components: A Guide to Protecting Your Investment

When it comes to packaging computer components, it's essential to take extra precautions to ensure they arrive at their destination safely and securely. One of the most critical aspects of packing computer components is cushioning them against shocks and impacts. In this article, we'll explore the importance of proper packing techniques and provide step-by-step guidance on how to pack your computer components.

To start with, it's essential to understand that not all materials are created equal when it comes to providing impact protection. Flat or densely packed materials like newspaper can actually increase the risk of damage if they're compressed too much or become compacted against the sides of the box. On the other hand, loosely crumpled material can provide excellent shock absorption.

One method for adding cushioning around a motherboard box is to wrap it in multiple layers of loose newspaper. This will help prevent any shocks or impacts from being transmitted directly to the component. For example, if you were to drop the box, the newspaper would compress and absorb some of the impact, reducing the risk of damage.

To take this a step further, we can add extra cushioning around the motherboard box on each side. This will provide an additional layer of protection against impacts coming from different directions. By using multiple layers of loose material like newspaper or even crumpled up cardboard, we can create a makeshift "sponge" that absorbs and disperses shocks.

Another crucial aspect of packing computer components is protecting sensitive equipment from static electricity. The graphics card, in particular, is susceptible to damage from electrostatic discharge (ESD). To prevent this, it's essential to wrap the graphics card in newspaper or another insulating material before placing it in the box. This will help protect it from any stray electrons that might be present on the surrounding components.

The power supply unit is also a critical component that requires special care when packing. It's recommended to wrap the power supply unit in one layer of newspaper, as additional cushioning can actually make it more prone to damage if it were to fall or shift during transit. By keeping things loose and crumpled, we can minimize the risk of damage while still providing some protection.

When it comes to packing hard drives, a slightly different approach is required. Spinning hard drives are particularly susceptible to damage from shocks and impacts, so it's essential to take extra precautions when packing them. To prevent this, you'll want to wrap each hard drive in one layer of newspaper, allowing for as much movement and flexibility as possible. This will help absorb any shocks or impacts that might occur during transit.

Finally, the graphics card and power supply unit are placed in the box, with the graphics card wrapped in a single layer of newspaper to protect it from static electricity. The power supply unit is placed near the center of the box, surrounded by cushioning material on all sides to prevent any shocks or impacts. With these components safely packed and protected, we can now focus on adding some finishing touches to our carefully crafted packing solution.

In addition to providing individual protection for each component, it's also essential to ensure that the overall box is well-cushioned to absorb any shocks or impacts. To achieve this, I used a combination of loose newspaper and crumpled cardboard to create an effective "sponge" around the perimeter of the box. This provides an additional layer of protection against impacts coming from different directions.

With all components safely packed and protected, we can now focus on adding the finishing touches. The wires, including the power cable and SATA cables, are carefully placed at the top of the box to prevent any tangling or damage during transit. A final layer of tape is applied to the bottom side of the box to secure everything in place.

And with that, our carefully crafted packing solution is complete. From the graphics card to the power supply unit, each component has been given careful consideration and attention to ensure it arrives at its destination safely and securely. By following these simple steps and taking a few extra precautions, you can help protect your valuable computer components from damage during transit.

With the box now packed and ready for shipment, we can finally bid adieu to our carefully crafted packing solution. It's been a long journey, but with this article, you've gained a deeper understanding of the importance of proper packing techniques when it comes to protecting your computer components.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthere's not going to be much room there's not going to be much room there's not going to be much room hey what's up everyone Danny here and this video we're going to be doing an opposite of a let's unbox it together video so it's going to be a let's box it together and these are all parts for a complete build that I'm going to put together to ship to a friend I've already benchmarked them and tested them to make sure that they work and uh I'll have that video Linked In the description section below but we got everything except for the case because it doesn't make sense for me to try to ship a case to him with all this in it first of all it's dangerous because the parts can come undone and all that but it's also really expensive to ship a full computer case so he's just going to buy a case and have new egg or Amazon or whatever ship it straight to him since that makes more sense it would be cheaper that way but I wanted to do this video because if you're going to be buying or even selling used Hardware it's good to know what to look for when someone sends you something or when you send something out uh to make sure it isn't damaged in the proc process so without further Ado let's get right into it so let's talk about all the best materials needed to do this the best stuff to use is stuff that came with the components when they were brand new initially so that includes any bubble wrap um this is also a weird form of bubble wrap it's like long tube air wraps and um here's some bubble bags from from Amazon I just save all these up because I know I'm going to need them one day so I keep like a kind of small stash on hand and here are anti-static bags these are really useful but let's say you don't have all these because for whatever reason you didn't think about it and you threw them away there are other Alternatives that you can use and the most important of them is newspaper or just paper in general but I find that newspaper is easiest because it's really large and you can do a lot with it in terms of wrapping a part up and using it as crumple material you can get them almost anywhere whereas I think anti-static bags are a little bit more rare to find in your common store and you can either usually get them for really cheap or for free you can also use other things like junk mail like this is a class schedule from the local community college that they always send out every quarter and this has many pages and is basically like newspaper I'm going to get a little creative in this video and also use things like this broccoli bag as well as this jasmine rice bag bag and these are both dry so water is not going to be an issue but I want to use them because they're pretty thick they're not just like crappy material they're thick and durable which means that you know when you crumple them up they will take up a lot of volume and make for good cushioning last thing you're going to need are boxes and depending on what you're shipping out you may need one or more boxes because I'm shipping out a mboard I'm going to have a dedicated motherboard box this isn't the one for this motherboard this is actually an MD box that I just had and this is an Intel motherboard but it just has to fit the same form factor so this is a full ATX box and I want to have a separate box within the bigger box for the motherboard specifically I'm going to be leaving the ram in the slots as well as the heat sink on so this is just going to protect that all as a package and then for everything else to go in as well as this box um this is the only box I had you can use anything it doesn't really matter but just get something that you can have cushion on all sides and will fit all the components in let me make a little bit of space real quick so that I can show what I'm doing here so the first thing I'm going to pack up is the motherboard and ideally you want to put it in an anti-static bag but let's just say you don't have one so what you want to do is wrap it completely in newspaper so the motherboard is now completely wrapped up even within the box I would recommend putting down at least a small layer of cushion so that the back of the motherboard is not directly in contact with kind of a hard surface so if it is moving around a bit there is some layer of cushioning so we're just going to put newspaper in before laying it down and then stick the motherboard in now once the motherboard's in I would also recommend stuffing a little bit of newspaper loosely uh on all sides and this is the final product so it's cushioned on the back side of the motherboard with two to three layers of kind of loose uh loose paper that can compress as well as the top side and it has the heat sink up here that's going to protect all of it then we have all of these kind of small strips stuff along the side so that if it does shift in any of those directions it will absorb the impact so now we can close this up and there we have it now we got to figure out the orientation of how this is all going to go in the box if you're shipping out only one component it's not too bad you just put it right in the center of the box if you can but since we're shipping on multiple things we want it to be padded on all sides within this box and then we want cushioning between each of the individual components so it looks like this is going to fit the best like this if you look at it there's not much room within this box to have cushioning around the motherboard box on the sides uh it's already flush right here basically so that's why we wanted to have all the extra layers of cushioning around this motherboard box on the inside so that even though we can't add additional Cushing you know on this top side it's already going to be fine so I'm going to add something in this Gap right here so that the motherboard has some form of impact absorption on this side in case it does fall in this direction whenever your packing stuff you want it to be kind of loose and crumpled because uh multiple layers of a crumpled material can absorb impact way better than multiple layers of a flat or densely packed material like let's look at this newspaper if I couple it up a bit and there's like five or six layers through the thickness and I punch it you know that sounded soft and it felt soft it didn't hurt at all and let's look at this this is probably like eight layers of newspaper imagine it was densely packed like this or just laid in flat when you punch it you can hear that sound that's a hard impact and you know that's not going to protect your parts as well so always Loosely Bunch things up whether it be newspaper like these bags or any kind of paper put this on the side right here to fill in the Gap and we're just going to leave it there for now and then we can pack it more if we have room next up we'll do the hard drives and for these I just make sure that there is one layer of newspaper wrapped around each of them and here we go again Loosely wrapped so that uh it can compress quite a bit and this is basically all you need to do for that this is also a solid St drive so I'm worried less about it uh in terms of shock absorption but for this one uh we'll see what one piece of newspaper does cuz this is a spinning hard drive so I can still kind of feel hard edges on there I'm just going to pack some more newspaper you can kind of use your best judgment on this all right so both the hard drives are packed up now I'm going to put them in to the side and I will rearrange it and play Tetris in a second next up is the graphics card you can follow the same advice that I use for the hard drives but because I have this thing uh I'm going to first wrap it up in newspaper because this plastic material can build up a static charge so I'm going to first protect it on all sides with newspaper then I will put it in here one layer of newspaper on the graphics card is enough because in this case I'm not using it for a cushioning or dampening impact I'm just using it to protect it from electrostatic discharge so we will now stick this in here and it will be safe and can rub against this plastic material and we can rub on the floor all we want and it will not be damaged graphics card all ready to go last is the power supply and this thing is pretty beefy so I'm going to get one layer of newspaper around it first and then we're going to play some Tetris within this box to see if we can get it kind of in the center with cushion all around it because I think you know this graphics card could be on the side of the Box because this is plenty of cushioning and uh we want this thing because it's so heavy to be in the center because it's going to be shifting around the most all right and we are good to go so everything is wrapped up now it's time to play Tetris so I'm going to move the camera and let's see how we fit everything inside the Box all right so everything is in the box and I made sure to have anywhere from 1 to 2 in uh of cushion around the perimeter of the big outside box and the last thing to put in are these wires which is going to be the power cable as well as some SATA cables from my friend we're going to put them right here on top I think we are good to go I'm just going to do one more layer of tape on this bottom side cuz this thing used to hold potato chips and now it's holding a bunch of computer parts all right let's get it shipped out now what's your phone number um it's mhm mhm day yeah you too thank you so much for waiting all right bye okay all right it's in UPS's hands now and we are all done so let's get out of here that's going to be it for this video I hope you guys enjoyed it I tried to make it as entertaining as possible as you can for a boxing video so I'm going to wrap it up and I will see you on the next one bye byethere's not going to be much room there's not going to be much room there's not going to be much room hey what's up everyone Danny here and this video we're going to be doing an opposite of a let's unbox it together video so it's going to be a let's box it together and these are all parts for a complete build that I'm going to put together to ship to a friend I've already benchmarked them and tested them to make sure that they work and uh I'll have that video Linked In the description section below but we got everything except for the case because it doesn't make sense for me to try to ship a case to him with all this in it first of all it's dangerous because the parts can come undone and all that but it's also really expensive to ship a full computer case so he's just going to buy a case and have new egg or Amazon or whatever ship it straight to him since that makes more sense it would be cheaper that way but I wanted to do this video because if you're going to be buying or even selling used Hardware it's good to know what to look for when someone sends you something or when you send something out uh to make sure it isn't damaged in the proc process so without further Ado let's get right into it so let's talk about all the best materials needed to do this the best stuff to use is stuff that came with the components when they were brand new initially so that includes any bubble wrap um this is also a weird form of bubble wrap it's like long tube air wraps and um here's some bubble bags from from Amazon I just save all these up because I know I'm going to need them one day so I keep like a kind of small stash on hand and here are anti-static bags these are really useful but let's say you don't have all these because for whatever reason you didn't think about it and you threw them away there are other Alternatives that you can use and the most important of them is newspaper or just paper in general but I find that newspaper is easiest because it's really large and you can do a lot with it in terms of wrapping a part up and using it as crumple material you can get them almost anywhere whereas I think anti-static bags are a little bit more rare to find in your common store and you can either usually get them for really cheap or for free you can also use other things like junk mail like this is a class schedule from the local community college that they always send out every quarter and this has many pages and is basically like newspaper I'm going to get a little creative in this video and also use things like this broccoli bag as well as this jasmine rice bag bag and these are both dry so water is not going to be an issue but I want to use them because they're pretty thick they're not just like crappy material they're thick and durable which means that you know when you crumple them up they will take up a lot of volume and make for good cushioning last thing you're going to need are boxes and depending on what you're shipping out you may need one or more boxes because I'm shipping out a mboard I'm going to have a dedicated motherboard box this isn't the one for this motherboard this is actually an MD box that I just had and this is an Intel motherboard but it just has to fit the same form factor so this is a full ATX box and I want to have a separate box within the bigger box for the motherboard specifically I'm going to be leaving the ram in the slots as well as the heat sink on so this is just going to protect that all as a package and then for everything else to go in as well as this box um this is the only box I had you can use anything it doesn't really matter but just get something that you can have cushion on all sides and will fit all the components in let me make a little bit of space real quick so that I can show what I'm doing here so the first thing I'm going to pack up is the motherboard and ideally you want to put it in an anti-static bag but let's just say you don't have one so what you want to do is wrap it completely in newspaper so the motherboard is now completely wrapped up even within the box I would recommend putting down at least a small layer of cushion so that the back of the motherboard is not directly in contact with kind of a hard surface so if it is moving around a bit there is some layer of cushioning so we're just going to put newspaper in before laying it down and then stick the motherboard in now once the motherboard's in I would also recommend stuffing a little bit of newspaper loosely uh on all sides and this is the final product so it's cushioned on the back side of the motherboard with two to three layers of kind of loose uh loose paper that can compress as well as the top side and it has the heat sink up here that's going to protect all of it then we have all of these kind of small strips stuff along the side so that if it does shift in any of those directions it will absorb the impact so now we can close this up and there we have it now we got to figure out the orientation of how this is all going to go in the box if you're shipping out only one component it's not too bad you just put it right in the center of the box if you can but since we're shipping on multiple things we want it to be padded on all sides within this box and then we want cushioning between each of the individual components so it looks like this is going to fit the best like this if you look at it there's not much room within this box to have cushioning around the motherboard box on the sides uh it's already flush right here basically so that's why we wanted to have all the extra layers of cushioning around this motherboard box on the inside so that even though we can't add additional Cushing you know on this top side it's already going to be fine so I'm going to add something in this Gap right here so that the motherboard has some form of impact absorption on this side in case it does fall in this direction whenever your packing stuff you want it to be kind of loose and crumpled because uh multiple layers of a crumpled material can absorb impact way better than multiple layers of a flat or densely packed material like let's look at this newspaper if I couple it up a bit and there's like five or six layers through the thickness and I punch it you know that sounded soft and it felt soft it didn't hurt at all and let's look at this this is probably like eight layers of newspaper imagine it was densely packed like this or just laid in flat when you punch it you can hear that sound that's a hard impact and you know that's not going to protect your parts as well so always Loosely Bunch things up whether it be newspaper like these bags or any kind of paper put this on the side right here to fill in the Gap and we're just going to leave it there for now and then we can pack it more if we have room next up we'll do the hard drives and for these I just make sure that there is one layer of newspaper wrapped around each of them and here we go again Loosely wrapped so that uh it can compress quite a bit and this is basically all you need to do for that this is also a solid St drive so I'm worried less about it uh in terms of shock absorption but for this one uh we'll see what one piece of newspaper does cuz this is a spinning hard drive so I can still kind of feel hard edges on there I'm just going to pack some more newspaper you can kind of use your best judgment on this all right so both the hard drives are packed up now I'm going to put them in to the side and I will rearrange it and play Tetris in a second next up is the graphics card you can follow the same advice that I use for the hard drives but because I have this thing uh I'm going to first wrap it up in newspaper because this plastic material can build up a static charge so I'm going to first protect it on all sides with newspaper then I will put it in here one layer of newspaper on the graphics card is enough because in this case I'm not using it for a cushioning or dampening impact I'm just using it to protect it from electrostatic discharge so we will now stick this in here and it will be safe and can rub against this plastic material and we can rub on the floor all we want and it will not be damaged graphics card all ready to go last is the power supply and this thing is pretty beefy so I'm going to get one layer of newspaper around it first and then we're going to play some Tetris within this box to see if we can get it kind of in the center with cushion all around it because I think you know this graphics card could be on the side of the Box because this is plenty of cushioning and uh we want this thing because it's so heavy to be in the center because it's going to be shifting around the most all right and we are good to go so everything is wrapped up now it's time to play Tetris so I'm going to move the camera and let's see how we fit everything inside the Box all right so everything is in the box and I made sure to have anywhere from 1 to 2 in uh of cushion around the perimeter of the big outside box and the last thing to put in are these wires which is going to be the power cable as well as some SATA cables from my friend we're going to put them right here on top I think we are good to go I'm just going to do one more layer of tape on this bottom side cuz this thing used to hold potato chips and now it's holding a bunch of computer parts all right let's get it shipped out now what's your phone number um it's mhm mhm day yeah you too thank you so much for waiting all right bye okay all right it's in UPS's hands now and we are all done so let's get out of here that's going to be it for this video I hope you guys enjoyed it I tried to make it as entertaining as possible as you can for a boxing video so I'm going to wrap it up and I will see you on the next one bye bye\n"