Yes, I did carry my PC inside checked baggage

We left Japan on the 21st of December, with no plan to return. That's not important. What's important is that I managed to bring the PC inside checked baggage without much trouble. 

The PC easily fit inside wife's suitcase because it is fat, and the display fit inside my suitcase because it is wider. Too bad I forgot to take a photograph of them packed inside the suitcases. I used the original foam covers to protect them. It was the display that required more of the protection. The case would not break due to pressure because it is stronger and the shape is sturdy. The display is too thin and even the pressure from clothes can shatter the screen. Thankfully, my suitcase is very rigid and would not deform due to pressure from external pressure.

I had to buy another suitcase because the two suitcases didn't provide room for the clothes that wife had collected over the last 4 years. Even then, we had to use vacuum bags to make them use up less space as possible. Unfortunately we couldn't bring any chocolates or sweets from Japan. I could have shipped them using a wooden crate but they are expensive. JPY 66,000 per 2 cubic meters. I didn't have much other useful stuff to ship to Sri Lanka anyways. The mains power mismatch is responsible for it mostly though. Otherwise I could have brought down the refrigerator and the washing machine, which were in very good condition. 

Anyways, back to the original topic. The PC survived the trip with no harm. As you can see in the photo on the top, they are safely back at my house. Sadly, there isn't much space for two PCs - mine and the parents'. But it is OK, because the main unit at least, won't stay here for too long. It will be going on another long voyage soon. Hopefully I will have enough baggage space. I would have to think about what I am going to do with the display. I can take it with me, or I can sell it in SL. But people don't want to pay much for second hand products, especially the ones that do not come with warranty. There is a few more weeks to think about it. Today is not the day to think about it.

Do you think that I have upgraded my PC too often in the last 5 years?

I had an idea in the morning. I wanted to know all the PC parts that I have bought during the 5 and a half years I have lived in Japan. I think I have spent a lot of money on the PC!!!

But hey, it is my hobby and just because one might feel that it is a total waste of money, it is called life. And I have sold everything that I do not use, albeit at a much lower price than I bought. I think I probably have wasted like JPY 200,000 if you calculate the deficit between the total amount I have spent on buying these items and the total amount I have sold them for.

There are two ways you can go about buying a PC. Either spend a fortune and get something that might last 3 or 4 years without any trouble. Or buy something spending half that price and keep upgrading the components every year and selling the old components. If you keep the total cost the same, you would definitely have a much faster, efficient and capable system in 4 years than the high-end system you would otherwise have built 4 years ago. I follow the second path.

Anyways, here is the list I came up with.

CPU

1. Intel Core i5 750
2. Intel Core i7 2600K
3. Intel Core i7 4770K
4. Intel Core i7 4790K x3 (Yes, I bought three of them and settled with one)

Motherboard

1. Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3
2. ASRock Z68 Extreme 4
3. Asus Maximus VII Hero
4. Asus Maximus VII Gene
5. Asus Z97i Plus - current

The bezel of the QX2710 is opening up...

I bought my QX2710 display from eBay, paying roughly $300 about 2 years ago. It is indeed not as fancy or feature rich as the models from the known brands, it gets the job done.

The QX2710 has one big problem. The stock monitor stand is very week. Even a small earthquake makes the whole monitor wobble while the table lamp hardly moves. Furthermore, the friction between the surface of the stand and the monitor is not sufficient, which makes the monitor lean forward after a few hours of adjusting the tilt. Usually you would want the display to tilt slightly backwards, but in this case it tilts forward. And I have gotten used to it.

Now there is a bigger problem. The tension caused by the weight of the monitor on the stand has made the bezel to warp a bit!!! Now there is a slight gap between the panel and the bezel around the middle bottom of the display as shown in the photo below.

I am not comfortable using the monitor as it is. The only solution as far as I can understand is to buy a 3rd party monitor stand or arm and mount the monitor on it. The monitor is VESA mountable, however there is one catch. A part of the base would stick out of the bottom like a ponytail. To remove it, you have to take the monitor apart, which I am not very keen on performing.

But then again, a separate base would just add more weight to the monitor. This is problem because I plan on shipping the display inside the checked baggage. I cannot predict the fate of the display in the hands of the ruthless baggage handlers at the Katunayake Airport though. All I can do is hope for the best. Perhaps I will buy a monitor arm if it survives the trip.