Advice for traveling with a tower?

So I may be moving over seas for a period in the nearish future, and was wondering if anyone had any advice on transporting a computer tower/monitor long distances, particularly on long flights. I've heard to just take it apart, but even in it's disassembled state the physical case is still quite large. Does anyone have some magical way to keep it secure without having to disassemble it (wishful thinking on my part, I'm sure :P ), or even good advice for bags or something I can buy for this function? I googled some sites but a lot of them either got 404 errors or simply sold loose holders to transport it in a car or over your shoulder. Thanks for anyone's help! :)

Ship it through Fedex or Purolator, it'll probably be cheaper than checking it and you can have it insured.

Purchase some of that inflatable balloon packaging you often find electrical products packaged in and fill every gap inside the case with it.Then be sure to cover the case in about 4-6 layers of bubble wrap and finally pack it inside the original cardboard box with the polystyrene moulds that would have come when you bought the case. Then duct tape the box along every edge and opening to avoid possible damp leaking in should something spill in the cargo hold.

If you don't have the original box the case came in then buy something that provides as close a fit as possible and stuff rolled up newspaper down the sides etc to make it a "tighter" fit. I've done this every time I moved with my desktop tower before finally just buying a laptop lol so there's always that option :P

How do you get it to fit after adding so many layers to the tower?

I'd recommend taking the GPU out and wrapping it separately, especially if it is a large card. If there box gets some rough handling I can imagine the PCI connection cracking or snapping under the stress.

I usually opt for the "small" bubble wrap. But arguably it's less about getting the moulds to fit and more about getting the case to fit tightly in the box which the moulds help achieve. The less it bounces around inside the box the better.

Remove the GPU, RAM, drives, and heatsink and fan. Package those seperately, using mylar for the appropriate components. Hopefully you'll have the packaging for the GPU, still. Take the rest to a UPS store so they can package it professionally. They'll likely just fit it into an appropriate box and spray it full of self-hardening foam. Be sure to take photos before shipping it and also photos of it after it is packed, before they close up the box. Buy the proper amount of insurance. You should be good to go.

Did anyone else think the thread title was an innuendo? *blush*

I saw the title plus the Toad avatar and assumed it was SexyToad. I was disappointed when it wasn't.