Pick a rolling hard case for transporting meeting IT hardware

July 16, 2009 7:11 AM

Help me find a good box to transport a projector, laptop, cables and power cords in, preferably with wheels etc.

I'm the IT manager for a Solar Panel manufacturing company. We have numerous meetings out-of-office at local hotels/convention centers. Every quarter we also have a huge quarterly meeting. I always have to pack up the loaner laptop, projector, extension cords, power strips and cables which usually ends up being 2 bags etc.

I'm looking to buy some sort of hard case that with wheels and handle (like a roller bag but a case) that I could use to create 2 of these "Meeting in a boxes" so that when employees need them for off-site they can easily grab everything in one place. I need some recommendations on good brands or models of boxes to look into. It would house the following (for size estimates):

-Dell WX1609 Widescreen Projector
-Dell Latitude D630 or E6400 laptop
-PowerSquid surge protector
-Optical Mouse
-Extension cord (6ft.)

So nothing too huge really! Thanks in advance!

posted by PetiePal to technology (6 answers total)

How about a Pelican case with wheels? They're pretty much your gold standard. The particular size I've linked to may or may not be close to what you need, but they come in a jillion shapes.
posted by bcwinters at 7:18 AM on July 16, 2009

bcwinters has it exactly. In my work we use Pelican cases all the time, have taken them on numerous cross-country and international flights. They hold up perfectly and protect our sensitive electronics / computer gear through all the rough treatment these cases inevitably receive.
posted by doh ray mii at 7:54 AM on July 16, 2009

Perfect think I'm going to go with those :) Plus they come with modifiable foam!
posted by PetiePal at 8:04 AM on July 16, 2009

I had a couple of years in sales where I needed to do the exact same kind of IT shipping. We were always shipping laptops, projectors, big monitors, and peripherals. To manage the monitors, I really needed the customized foam option, and the monitors also "sized" me out of an off-the-shelf solution like Pelican.

You didn't mention whether you will be driving, or carrying these items onto planes, versus shipping. I mostly had to ship ahead, so I wanted ATA-rated cases, a designation meaning that the Air Transport Association has determined the case to be safe for air shipping for up to X number of cargo trips. I found a local vendor in Dallas to build custom road cases for us, the kind that gigging musicians move gear in.

This is a bigger and more expensive solution than you might need right now, but I just wanted to point out that if you have to ship your AV, or check it on a plane, you likely want to look for an ATA-rated option.

My vendor also had a couple of cases on hand that he retro-fit for me, so I didn't always pay the custom price of a full build. I just measured my monitors and brought in the specs and they built it out. If you pursue this option, you might look for a local case company and see what they already have on hand that can be customized for you.
posted by pineapple at 8:39 AM on July 16, 2009

Nthing Pelican. The pick-n-pluck foam makes it really easy to customize a case and they are sturdy beasts. The 1620 is the largest case you can check on an airline without an oversize bag charge although it may wind up overweight. I also love the 340 cube case with removable casters; it's a little bit of pain to remove the casters before shipping but the square size fits lots of unusual stuff.
posted by ulotrichous at 9:09 AM on July 16, 2009

I used to have a job where I had to schlep a bunch of equipment around. I would regularly ship the cases using UPS, FedEx, etc and also drag them to the airport. The equipment always arrived fine.

My company used Cabbage Cases, which were constructed especially for the equipment, and the cases paid for themselves many times over.
posted by mattybonez at 10:50 AM on July 16, 2009