Fun fact: Although the pins are themselves very magnetic, they aren’t steel but rather a metal called Kovar. It’s an alloy made from cobalt and nickel designed specifically for bonding to glass materials for use in lightbulbs, vacuum tubes, and cathode ray tubes, thus the ceramic substrate bonds with it and holds the pins quite well even though they are surface mounted. Keep your ceramic substrates to process later one day when you have enough. Crush to a fine powder then recover the gold/PD in the traces that run to the die. Most people would never know it, but they are there!
I got tons of old PCs but I’m hanging on to them because I’m too nervous about someone stealing my data from the old drives. Even a wipe they seem to be able to get stuff they want…
I've been dismantling hundreds of boards and sorting all the pieces. Various parts have to be processed differently. For instance, fiberboard CPUs and ceramic CPUs can't be processed together, since they react in totally different ways to chemicals. Even different sorts of plastic chips need to be processed differently. Those with huge metal heat sinks can eat up a lot of chemicals, so those must be removed after ashing. Smelting the ground up ashes with a collector metal is generally the best way to recover the most PMs from both chips and MLCCs. Low-grade pins are best handled melted into a bar and then electrolyzed in an acid sulfate solution, which will remove the base metals but leave the PMs as 'mud' around the anode.
You are welcome! This is the most amazing computer scrap gold recovery video EVER!!! This is the BEST RUclips channel for precious metal refining! Very well done. Thank you Sir! 👍👍👍👍🤟
I can’t imagine the smell that’d be coming from that much smb haha. Try throwing sulphamic crystals in there to reduce your nitric and precipitate lead instead of just sulphuric acid. That’ll do 2 birds with 1 stone, or you could throw some zinc in to kill off the nitric as it cements out pms, then refine after recovering. Also you’re definitely missing some gold, I would recommend boiling the ceramics in hcl and water then adding to your filtrate. Yes there’s lead sulphate I can see in there, but the color also indicates more AR with pms in it. The ceramics love to soak up liquids too so they’ll hold gold without rinsing. Check them after sitting a few days once they dry, and you’ll notice them turning green and deeper purple, that’s the nickel and gold coming out from the dried solution embedded in them
I have one of these lying around because I tend to save most of my older computer parts from 90s until now. I heard these might have a decent amount of gold, so I decided to hold onto it. After watching this video, now I know there is about .25 g of gold in it. Thanks!
@@xephael3485 I'm sure SREETIPS is well aware of the cost of the CPU's on EBAY. That's where he bought them! I'm totally sure he LOST money making this video, but that's the whole point. He just did it to make the video and for no other reason.(other than to get a bit of his investment back).
The ceramic initially eats up a lot of the chemicals. The ceramics in these chips are NOT chemically inert. It's why the big companies smelt ceramic chips. The inert ceramics tend to be the very old white ceramics. Some are porcelain.
Maybe that beaker was not borosilicate, Chief? For what its worth, Sir, I think I would have taken the cpu's to the mortar and pestle and broke them up much finer. And I agree with you, too much nitric. If you have more may I suggest doing the mortar thing and maybe reprocessing the first batch? I NEVER get tired of you seemingly pulling gold out of thin air. Lol!
@@edibandulan5266 not necessarily true. there are traces that run in between the ceramic layers and complete pulverization is the only way to extract 100% of the gold. The refiner I use once told me that simply cracking the caps open leaves 40% in the ceramic substrate. He told me this when I brought a few dozen processors with caps off to run through a cyanide stripper.
@@dmzackk Bro this chip in my country is worh about $15.65 cent/pcs and sreetips got 1.9gram of gold that's same as we expected the yield, that big pentium pro chip contain around 0.25 gram of gold per chips and could be less or more depending on the year production, manufacturing place, and the country who manufacturing it.
Just noticed @12:48 the silicon dies are still attached to the ceramic substrate, the braze used to connect them contains substantial amount of gold, which is hard to get to unless you remove it with a torch or boil the hell out of it in AR until the dies detach
As a computer enthoustast (especially around when those CPUs came out) this first procedure was hard to watch... These appear to be the 256 KB cache 200 MHz ones. This chip had a wholesale (per 1000) price of US$ 1325 when introduced late 1995. If these were all 200/256 models then you just smashed over $10k when new. Inflation adjusted from 1996, it's about double that, give or take some.
Yes exactly. But melt people won't listen: “You can lead horses to water, but you can't make them drink.” Please preserve history and don't destroy it. History enrichens future.
@@sreetips Oh, definitely! They are about 25 to 28 years old now, give or take some. There are smartwatches that have several times more processing power than this chip. But in terms of nostalgia, these things are of incredibly high value, if you happen to be a computer enthusiast from that time. (1995-1996)
@@sreetipsnot one of these clowns commenting, buys and resells processors. But they insist you should. Its simply amazing. Also checked to see any content created by these extremely helpful critics. Zero. Thank you for the video sir.
I believe that not all the copper in the plates dissolved completely and that same undissolved copper cemented the gold back into solution, which precipitated in the form of fine powder imperceptible to the naked eye.
We ❤ the scrap refines. People say almost anything. You kind Sir break the myths that the yeilds r high in certain scrap they sell.All the best to you and the Mrs's.
Oh BTW ... these days it's much more profitable to NOT do this. They weren't all that common back in the day and plenty have been recycled for gold content they're becoming quite rare in fully working form - especially if you have a working PC motherboard with them. Collectors often pay over $50 a piece if they're own good shape. There are heaps of CPU collectors out there because they're leveraging both rarity and precious metals prices.
only $50 a piece? The Cost of a Pentium Pro back when they came out was over $1000. I remember paying $150 at a computer show for a used Pentium 75mhz. Now when I find them, they just go into a bucket waiting for my next refine.
@@scrapman502 Yes, $50 is low. Some get $100 or much more, but they're going to approach retail sooner rather than later. Not 10 years ago in my part of the world, companies were forced to pay to get them taken them away and recycled.. Boards usually ended up being shipped to Africa when kids would pull them apart with their bare hands then burn them in makeshift furnaces or crush and use cyanide to get the Ag, Au and PGMs - no safety gear. Shocking. Yes I remember they. were horrendously expensive new, but gold was $400 ozt at the time. Every single one which gets busted up just makes those still alive more valuable for the collectors. :).
@@ericmcmanus5179collector side, theyre worth more than the scrap value, its worse when ypu consider the cost of materials and labor to melt them down.
Can't really put a price on gold denominated by a depleting currency, Gold and silver is the head of AI, gold some type of intelligent processor and silver a conductor, then there's the fact bitcoin wouldn't exist without it and somehow it's worth more? Sounds like bs, just observation
These will be worth significantly more than the gold contained in a couple years because of this. Keep any of them that have a 1M L2 cache, seriously the vintage computer market for rare components like these is going nuts.
Oh man, I was expecting you'd get about a half of a gram per CPU. That's a lower yield on those older ( significantly more gold laden ) chips than I was expecting them to be. Thank you for showing how even these higher gold-content, older chips, aren't very cost effective to extract the gold from unless one gets them super cheap ( or for free ! )
Thank you so much for this, and all the other videos you have made! This one in particular has hit home, at exactly the right time! As I've run into a similar problem on a batch of Pentium processor's I've been working on. I cooked the copper backs off the CPU's first. In a camp oven, on my rock kiln. But I didn't do the pre-bolis with Nitric that you did in this Vid. I went straight to Aqua Regia, and the batch turned Very, very dark green. I'm guessing that means there's still a lot of copper in solution, I probably haven't filtered enough, and added too much nitric. Then I think I went a little heavy de-noxxing with Sulphamic acid And trying to drop the gold out with SMB. a I now have several jars, of really dark green stuff to re-refine In fact, it's so dark, there's no point even trying a stannous test Because I couldn't tell the difference! And a jar with some unrecognisable sludge at the bottom that might be gold Which I guess I need to filter more! But now that I'm this far in, Any idea's on how to start again from scratch would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again, for all your good work!
Pentium Pro CPUs have some of the highest gold content of all computer scrap. I’ve never been able to get more than 0.3g of pure gold per cpu. Other CPUs will much less gold in them, probably less than a tenth of a tenth of a gram per CPU. So it will take one hundred of your CPUs (unless they are Pentium pro) to get just one gram of pure gold. Also, recovery and refining are two totally different processes. Aqua Regia is a refining reagent and should be use only AFTED the gold has been recovered. The nitric boils will release any gold from the base metals for a good recovery. Then you can use AR to refine the recovered gold. My guess is that you probably have very little (almost nothing) gold in with a ton of base metals. This is a common beginner mistake: expecting a tenth ounce of pure gold from a kilo of low-yielding CPUs. I made this mistake when I first started, and I learned from it and moved on, chalking it up as an expensive education on what not to do.
@@sreetips Rookie mistakes is where I'm at right now! And I'm making plenty! I built my own fume hood out of pallets and stuff. 2 months into things, the extraction fan suddenly let all the magic smoke out!! I'm not sure if that was a short between terminals, or the fumes had eaten the copper in the motor. So I'm currently rebuilding the way the whole fume hood works, So air is pumped INTO the box, instead of being sucked out of the box But it makes designing & getting it working just that little bit more complex. My first batch of processing was JUST the chips off ram boards, which I desoldered with a paint stripper heat gun, I cooked them with a gas torch, crushed them in a blender till they were powdered (And naturally, I ruined the first blender) Then did my first aqua Regia treatments and so, on, and I did manage to get 0.63 grams of gold out of that! Given it was my first try at it, So I'm really happy with that! I got some GOOLD! But as you can probbly tell by my description of the CPU's, I'm on a learning curve Which is always part of the fun. Big Thanks for what you've posted You've not just taught me every thing I know! You're also teaching me a hell of a lot of stuff I don't! I've been watching a hell of a lot of you-tube stuff on doing this, and one thing has really struck me as I'm trying it for myself. EVERYONE on youtube has a slightly different approach, often for cost and other reasons And many are downright scary due to the completely unsafe ways they do it! BUT, if you do watch, there's some interesting approaches to the same pronblem, and they get results. I guess I better shut the hell up sit down, And read some C.M. Hoke for a bit Before mixing any more chemicals! Happy refining! And a merry 2025 to ya!
1.9g, or US$76 as I write this from 8 Pentium Pro CPUs. How much does an untested 256k Pentium Pro sell for on eBay? About US$35. So those 8 CPUs would sell for US$280. Now it's fascinating seeing how much gold was used in these things and seeing the entire process, but if you're thinking of doing this to earn money: Stop and think again.
I bought a total of 15 CPUs. Paid about five or six hundred bucks (can’t remember exactly because it doesn’t matter). But only eight of them came in. I did this to earn currency. But not from the gold that I recovered. From the video. The gold, I’m keeping, it’s just a little bonus.
@@sreetipsyoure incentivizing people to think the scrap value of these is worth the destruction, lots of idiots are out in the world and will rip out processors that collectors desire just to end up scrapping them for a fraction of the items actual value.
Now this video i liked to see, it reminds me of my first attempt at e-waste recovery. fast n dirty doesn't always work, to much nitric acid, all the mistakes we could make . Great lesson!
I could have saved myself some grief had I just evaporated the solution to drive off excess nitric. I was trying force the reaction during precipitation. Never a good idea.
Hello, I would like to receive training from you for palladium platinum. I received training from a friend, we bring the product until it collapses, but after that I have problems. @@sreetips
@@sreetips I am afraid to say your way more of a instructor to many of us out here in the world than you can imagine. What i learn from reading helps,but seeing you hands on is so helpful in many many ways. I pray you never stop this hobby. Cheers and thank you
Whew, that was a rough one! Yield should have definitely been 2.4-2.6 grams, gold was lost along the way. That yellow precipitate is tungsten I believe. Small tip if I may.. adding 3-6 ml of conc sulfuric acid to the nitric boils will help the nitric attack and dissolve out the Kovar (similar to stainless steel). Thanks for sharing even when it doesn’t go according to plan!
I seen some gold forming in the waste solution. I’ll make another video and add it for a total yield. I was in a hurry to post the video. Only took seven hours start to finish. Trying to force reactions to happen never ends well.
Kovar is an iron-nickel alloy, whereas stainless steel contains chromium and sometimes other metals. When the Kovar parts aren't plated (such as the legs of many PROMs), after ashing and grinding, the kovar can simply be pulled out with a magnet.
@@Alondro77 Thanks, I’m very aware of what Kovar is, you forgot Cobalt. Most items, specifically ceramics where it’s used on the legs, pins and caps are indeed gold plated and ashing isn’t suitable for those types of components thus dissolving it is required.
so cool - ty so much for showing this - so cool. its funny im an it guy and i usually save a bunch of these chips along with the old copper fins they used to use to cool them off. so funny how huge they used to be back in the day.
I was wondering if there was a difference. I'll leave this to you though ❤ thanks for another good one, always fun to be shown how to get every single micromole of gold or pgm from a source
I remember buying about 100 Pentium 4 IBM Surplus computers at the time where they were not considered expensive nor collectable for around $10 each. I removed all the 33mhz CPU's and replaced them all with DX2-66 CPU's. I remember keeping them in a box for a while and ended up selling them to some guy for $25 or $30 for the entire box. In hindsight, I think I lost a lot of money. (and GOLD)
One issue you might be coming across is that the gold is not always bonded to another metallic substrate. The gold wires are deposited directly onto the silicon which the nitric won't touch.
The ceramic they used to encase the chips is probably what broke the beaker. When you break them up, leave very sharp ceramic points that will destroy your glassware.
Not that much actually. I remember those when they came out. The coolers on those things are tiny by today's comparison, but back then they were massive. It was definitely intended for a high-end workstation PC, with matching price point. Well out of reach of me in my early twenties. Most people upgraded from Pentium to the more consumer focussed Pentium II instead.
@@Hydrazine1000 I've worked with computers repairing & selling them for over 30 years. the only Pentium Pro CPUs I've ever seen were in Dual processor Motherboards, most likely servers. I may have seen 1-2 home-built computers with a single Pentium Pro CPU. That's how rare they were.
@@scrapman502 Yeah, at the time I lived in a city with a university of technology (where I was studying Materials Science & Engineering) so maybe they were a tad more common around there because of that. Think Windows NT workstations for CAD, early Photoshop and the likes.
That ceramic substrate is incredibly hard and sharp haha. I’ve gone through several pricey big beakers over the years because of it haha. Also be careful when stirring and try not to do it too much. You’ll notice how badly the beaker becomes scratched, especially when you drop the gold out and it’s stuck to the sides haha
Hiya professor Tips another great film boss I've been learning alot from your films putting things to good use but please professor burn or bake chip untill you can grind all to dust then start acid process use a lot less acid and recover more gold boss this I've learnt by following you here and experimenting the duster the better for recovery grinding to dust and water and gravity before acid is another great process loving theses films any chance of any more on recovery of platinum and palladium please cheers Prof
So much conjecture online as to how much gold recovery in every ceramic Pentium Pro. With sreetips excellent technique I'm going to call this experiment the definitive answer. Despite the fact I actually reviewed these on radio and TV when brand new, installed a couple of dual processor machines and wrote some custom assembly code for them, it's good to see them pulverised and recycled into real money!!!
Nope. I'm sorry to say it, but this refining was uncharacteristically sloppy for Streetips. As his next video shows the yield is low. But you really don't need that confirmation to see it in this video. I'm not running down Streetips. I'm a fan. He knows what he's doing or tells you when he doesn't. He was just off today. Happens to the everyone now and then.
I was anxious to get the video posted on a Saturday night. Saturday is a good night to post because folks are more likely to watch a video on a weekend night. Plus, I don’t have a lot of experience with these CPUs. I’ve got another batch arriving and now that I have a fresh experience under my belt, I’ll go slower and see if I can iron out some of the problems I experienced with this recovery.
@@guygordon2780 One way or another, he was going to get a final yield that is definitive. That's the whole point. If the yield were low, his technique is good enough that he'd work it out for himself... and he did. It only proves what I was saying. Having been a computer systems engineer and broadcast tech journalist with direct dealings with Intel, AMD, TI, NEC, Inmos and a bunch of other less well known hardware companies back in the 90s, I happen to know pretty accurately how most individual chips were designed, fabbed and packaged. To the surprise of many, a few epoxy-resin-plastic packages contained even more gold than their consumer-oriented ceramic parts. It all depends on the grade of the ICs. If they were mil spec then it is virtually always higher yielding as money is no object. Radiation-hardened devices use relatively large amounts of gold if they're destined for aerospace applications where shielding is critical. Automotive spec chips usually have quite a bit more than consumer too. If you can get your hands on hybrid ICs, particularly for RF applications, they also were and still are. I'd still advise against just turning any BGA IC into ash and hitting it with AR as many of these older devices have ultra-nasties on board and require excellent chemistry techniques to prevent exposure to carcinogens, genotoxins and a myriad of oxides of otherwise harmless metals; especially the PGMs. Beryllium was widely used, arsenic in GaAs FETs, even germanium used to be regarded as safe but now it's not. These go on and on. The point is there's more to excellent technique than ultra-high yield; the safety side is far more important than just "giving it a go" outside and hoping for the best.
Nice video, to avoid miss some gold while melting small amount of gold powder (tiny particles) I prefer to boil SMB with some water and some milliliters of sulphuric acid in a beaker then pour AR gold solution in same beaker then heat for 10 minutes, that will give you very large Spong gold pieces
Breaking the beaker reminded me of throwing a piece of broken porcelain off a spark plug at an old car window. Makes sense the chips are ceramic as well. Thanks for the multiple vids this week Chief. SREETIPS is my favorite refiner on the Tube. 😊
i never understood why it had to be spark plugs 😂 pretty sure there's easier porcelain in the world to get at for the folks who would do this. like, wouldn't a shard of coffee cup work? or just throw a whole old toilet at someone's car window.
The yield on these can be unpredictable. The ones with the 512K cache have the higher yields. The 256K cache has the lower yields. Either way, I don’t mess with these any more. People charge to much for them because of the fake information floating around alleging 1g per cpu.
I don’t normally process much escrap. But it’s very popular because of the myth: there’s an ounce of pure gold in every scrap PC waiting for those who can figure out how to get it.
The Pentium Pro Cpu's have Gold plated IRON pins. You were better off boiling them in pure hydrochloric acid for about an Hour or two before using the nitric. Nitric doesn't dissolve Iron very well. The HCL does a much better job. When you're done, you're going to end up with a very dirty solution.
Can you please let us know what capacity oxigen cylenderhave been used by you and also share information how much oxigen used in single melting process @@sreetips
May i also ask how much did you pay for the 8 cpu for this test? I am having a very hard time finding these parts to buy here in taiwan to work with. There trying to charge me full gold price on the scrape
Absolutely. I paid five or six hundred bucks for 15 CPUs. I can’t remember exactly. Maybe about fifty bucks each or something like that. But it doesn’t matter to me. I’m keeping the gold. And, hopefully, the real value will be in the video.
Sad to see that beaker break! I'm sure that was not an inexpensive mistake. And then you risked another by doing about the same thing. I hope next time for such a simple task use a metal pan - IMO I don't need to see something cooling off and sure don't want you to risk destroying another valuable piece of equipment. Also those chips should likely have been crushed much finer and I think you went too quickly to AR that you were not getting the full yield possible and had not dissolved all the base metals. [story time :) ] When working at the university one of the things we eventually had to do was auction off the mainframe computer (original cost millions of dollars), it was loaded with gold plated electronics and in today's market would probably have been worth many times the approx $1,200 we got for it. It was purchased by a metal refining outfit - they had to come get it and haul it away. Even at back then prices I'm sure they made out well on the deal. As a comparison of size, it took up most of a rather large room (50x80ft or so).
Just remember folks, nostalgia is a form of depression. It's subtle but no less pervasive. I grew up with these same chips in my life, but my interest in smelting and precious metal recovery far surpasses the desire to be stuck in the past. It's more than a little weird to see people turning into conservatives over a processor that was mostly used in workstations and servers.
I remember when I was 18 or 19 I got a job at a PC manufacturer. I got to see a whole tray of Pentium Pro CPUs and I was in awe. Now they are being hammered down for consumption. Recycling is good. Gold is good, but those poor CPUs. I hope they all were broken prior to destruction. Yeah, I'll just go with that.
Hello sir, nice result, may be some urea could be handy in excess nitric... Today I worked on 12O g of RAM chips, expecting 0.3, actual bead was 0.25 g... No acid used, burn, crush, goldpanning, cupelation with bismuth... Calm afternoon in garden... And I broke beacher too 🙂
Sorry to use these harsh words but scrapping Pentium Pro CPUs for their gold content is borderline stupid nowadays. These are worth much more as working CPUs for collectors. These easily go for 40..50€ here in Europe and even more in good condition. I'm sure it's not much different in the US. So you just destroyed 320...400€ worth of CPUs to yield 135€ of gold. And they were even in good shape, no bent pins on the one you showed at the beginning. The same is true for other gold top CPUs that are cheaper but yield less gold. You always maximise your win by selling them as long as they are in good shape. While I usually enjoy your videos and wisdom about this topic, this was an instruction video on what NOT to do.
@@sreetips That's what I thought. But you already have 3 videos with Pentium Pro CPUs so I really don't see the benefit. I mean when you get jewelry from estate sales, you sell the items that are worth more than their scrap value as they are. I think scrapping stuff should be the last option. But I understand that you want to offer a bit of diversity for your viewers. Thank you for that (:
@@miked2247 That's true but I actually don't collect them. I think it's just good practice to not destroy things that can otherwise be used and are sought after, especially when destroying them yields less money than selling them. But yeah, the less the more valuable.
Wow! Streetips you have been at this for years! Thank you for sharing your experience, and keeping us informed and safe. Have you tried the circuit boards on eBay?
I’m glad you smash up all the junk in the name of discovery. The gold is of much more use and value. I assure you I have benefited a great deal more because of the video than some collector who would idolize a bit of useless trash
FYI when processing electronics ceramics: some old ones use beryllium in the ceramic to improve thermal properties. The dust from those is extremely toxic, so be careful when working with them in ways that produce dust.
Im reminded about the platinum recovery for catylitic converters. A whole lotta work for small amount of gold. Yes i know it all adds up. But add in the chemicals and your time. Its not a win win situation
As far as refining goes, this is very educational. From a money-making point of view, its a bad idea. By my calculations you could sell 8 Intel Pentium Pros for roughly $180.00 as is (current price $115 per pound). The 2g button is worth about $160 from what I see online ($80 per gram as of today). Factor in your time, how much (if anything) you paid for them, plus the health risks....its just not worth it. I looked into refining when I started my e-scrap business 12 years ago and found out early on that it would only be a labor of love, not for profit. With that said, your videos are great to watch from a scientific perspective!
It's really interesting that they broke your beaker, I wonder if it was because they're kind of ceramic-y? Like when you throw spark plug ceramic at glass it shatters?
I've been waiting for one of these videos for a while. So many questions. Does the antimony precipitate with the lead. What about gallium and other metals used to dope silicon? Do the wash out in the nitric? Or at such low concentration it's not worth recovering.
The aqua regia looks like the same color as a gold filled recovery/refining regia. Did you put it back into solution a 2nd time? Because the button came out fantastic and super shiny!
Can you please direct me to a video that shows how to set up the exhaust or flowhood or whatever you use to control the toxic gas element? Are you on a backup power source like a diesel or solar generator in case of failure, or is it more like do it in a well ventilated area...? Everything else seems cut and dry, have a lot of experience with things like mycology/botany/aquaculture/aquaponics/hydroponics/etc but I'm new to working with heavy acids that have lethal gases. Side note: The dish you are using is the same exact kind as the ones my mom had growing up. Think there is still or two out there.
I have a pictorial video of the installation of my fume hood. Did it all myself. But I’d recommend a hood that’s suitable for acid digestions, no metal parts. I buy Corning ware casserole and baking dishes at yard sales and estate sales. A few bucks each.
@@sreetips After researching yours and one other, they are basically the exact opposite of a flowhood but with similar workspace for your hands. Except they are far cheaper to make and maintain. To get the static flow through a custom HEPA filter for a flowhood right is a real pain, whereas this only requires a 4" inline fan aiming either up, or ducted out. The only issue I see is I would have to duct mine out as I rent and can't add a toxic chimney to my landlords place if you know what I mean. He'd probably never say anything but still not a risk I want to take, lol. Plenty of experience with ducting so I'll find a way soon. I keep getting 925 silver through the Amazon Vine program (products for reviews) and scoring over at the local Goodwill. Seems like all people don't buy over there is silver and gold plate. Collections worth more on eBay, hard not to just shine those ones up and buy more silver/gold :P Oh, question I meant to ask before - where do you buy your nitric acid or do you make your own? I've heard it can be made with potatoes but I'd rather not worry about getting extra things right my first runs.
There's 24k mm wire in those chips, not to be picky but pounding them on the concrete is the worst and stick to concrete, they're visible in camera chips behind the lense
These are technically the 2nd highest yielding consumer processors. The absolute highest yielding consumer CPUs ive ever processed were the pentium pro black. They range from 0.78 on the lowest to 0.97g per processor! Basically the same concept with the pro blacks, except they have 3 dies in them instead of 2 like the ceramics. Comparatively thick bonding wires to each die as well.
How much in nitric acid costs are you going through? How much actual nitric acid can you re-use and how long does it last before you have to replace it? High strength acid costs around $70 US per liter. All the costs associated with the fuel and energy you use, I am curious how much overhead you have to produce the silver and gold you make.
The last time I bought nitric acid it was $458 for six 2.5 liter bottles including shipping charges. It will probably be closer to five hundred next time I order it, especially with the amount of currency that will be created in the next four years. The shipping charge alone was a hundred fifty (used to be just fifty bucks). That amount of nitric will last me about 6 to 8 months depending on what kind of material I am processing.
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Here I am sitting in a field camping in a tent watching ST melt computer chips beamed to me with a satellite. What a strange world
Imagine scrapping that satellite. Probably a fair amount of precious metals.
Yep, we're livin' in the future. But no flying cars yet, but still cool!
Happy 2024 Olympics!
Lmao dude 😂
😅😅
Fun fact:
Although the pins are themselves very magnetic, they aren’t steel but rather a metal called Kovar.
It’s an alloy made from cobalt and nickel designed specifically for bonding to glass materials for use in lightbulbs, vacuum tubes, and cathode ray tubes, thus the ceramic substrate bonds with it and holds the pins quite well even though they are surface mounted.
Keep your ceramic substrates to process later one day when you have enough. Crush to a fine powder then recover the gold/PD in the traces that run to the die. Most people would never know it, but they are there!
To think how much money I threw away from old pc's when I had a computer shop. I wish I had all of those boards and chips now.
I got tons of old PCs but I’m hanging on to them because I’m too nervous about someone stealing my data from the old drives. Even a wipe they seem to be able to get stuff they want…
@@GokouZWAR just physically break the memories
I've been dismantling hundreds of boards and sorting all the pieces. Various parts have to be processed differently. For instance, fiberboard CPUs and ceramic CPUs can't be processed together, since they react in totally different ways to chemicals. Even different sorts of plastic chips need to be processed differently. Those with huge metal heat sinks can eat up a lot of chemicals, so those must be removed after ashing. Smelting the ground up ashes with a collector metal is generally the best way to recover the most PMs from both chips and MLCCs. Low-grade pins are best handled melted into a bar and then electrolyzed in an acid sulfate solution, which will remove the base metals but leave the PMs as 'mud' around the anode.
Just drill a hole through the hard drives at in the platter area. There’s not enough pms in them anymore. Haven’t been for a while.
@@Alondro77great idea for the pins.
You are welcome! This is the most amazing computer scrap gold recovery video EVER!!! This is the BEST RUclips channel for precious metal refining! Very well done. Thank you Sir! 👍👍👍👍🤟
if you have 8 Pentium Pro's it's about $118... lol
I don’t care how many times you do this. I love it every time. ❤️
I can’t imagine the smell that’d be coming from that much smb haha.
Try throwing sulphamic crystals in there to reduce your nitric and precipitate lead instead of just sulphuric acid. That’ll do 2 birds with 1 stone, or you could throw some zinc in to kill off the nitric as it cements out pms, then refine after recovering.
Also you’re definitely missing some gold, I would recommend boiling the ceramics in hcl and water then adding to your filtrate. Yes there’s lead sulphate I can see in there, but the color also indicates more AR with pms in it. The ceramics love to soak up liquids too so they’ll hold gold without rinsing.
Check them after sitting a few days once they dry, and you’ll notice them turning green and deeper purple, that’s the nickel and gold coming out from the dried solution embedded in them
I have one of these lying around because I tend to save most of my older computer parts from 90s until now. I heard these might have a decent amount of gold, so I decided to hold onto it. After watching this video, now I know there is about .25 g of gold in it. Thanks!
Computer nerds on suicide watch lol
Well considering the CPUs retail value on eBay far exceeds the gold value... Yes
An accurate assesment SIR!
If CPU or other retro computer part isn't broken beyond repair, it shouldn't be destroyed.
About $65 or $70 each… so about $500 ish in total?
@@xephael3485 I'm sure SREETIPS is well aware of the cost of the CPU's on EBAY. That's where he bought them! I'm totally sure he LOST money making this video, but that's the whole point. He just did it to make the video and for no other reason.(other than to get a bit of his investment back).
I saved so many Pentium Pro CPU's and just made a cool display sign from them, now it's not looking like art so much :) Thanks, that went very well.
The ceramic initially eats up a lot of the chemicals. The ceramics in these chips are NOT chemically inert. It's why the big companies smelt ceramic chips. The inert ceramics tend to be the very old white ceramics. Some are porcelain.
Can’t express enough how much I enjoy these videos man. Please keep it up. 💪🏼
Maybe that beaker was not borosilicate, Chief?
For what its worth, Sir, I think I would have taken the cpu's to the mortar and pestle and broke them up much finer. And I agree with you, too much nitric. If you have more may I suggest doing the mortar thing and maybe reprocessing the first batch? I NEVER get tired of you seemingly pulling gold out of thin air. Lol!
I wonder if putting them in a blender would achieve the desired small chunk size with just a moment's effort
It don't needed, broken that cpu is enough or just blender the cpu into chunk.
@@edibandulan5266 not necessarily true. there are traces that run in between the ceramic layers and complete pulverization is the only way to extract 100% of the gold. The refiner I use once told me that simply cracking the caps open leaves 40% in the ceramic substrate. He told me this when I brought a few dozen processors with caps off to run through a cyanide stripper.
@@dmzackk Bro this chip in my country is worh about $15.65 cent/pcs and sreetips got 1.9gram of gold that's same as we expected the yield, that big pentium pro chip contain around 0.25 gram of gold per chips and could be less or more depending on the year production, manufacturing place, and the country who manufacturing it.
@@kylecordes Will it blend?
Just noticed @12:48 the silicon dies are still attached to the ceramic substrate, the braze used to connect them contains substantial amount of gold, which is hard to get to unless you remove it with a torch or boil the hell out of it in AR until the dies detach
As a computer enthoustast (especially around when those CPUs came out) this first procedure was hard to watch...
These appear to be the 256 KB cache 200 MHz ones. This chip had a wholesale (per 1000) price of US$ 1325 when introduced late 1995. If these were all 200/256 models then you just smashed over $10k when new. Inflation adjusted from 1996, it's about double that, give or take some.
Yes exactly. But melt people won't listen: “You can lead horses to water, but you can't make them drink.” Please preserve history and don't destroy it. History enrichens future.
I thought that those CPUs were obsolete and no longer in service.
@@sreetips Oh, definitely! They are about 25 to 28 years old now, give or take some. There are smartwatches that have several times more processing power than this chip.
But in terms of nostalgia, these things are of incredibly high value, if you happen to be a computer enthusiast from that time. (1995-1996)
They are cheap and plentiful on eBay. I have seven more processors that I plan to make another video with.
@@sreetipsnot one of these clowns commenting, buys and resells processors. But they insist you should. Its simply amazing. Also checked to see any content created by these extremely helpful critics. Zero. Thank you for the video sir.
Why didn't I stay in school? I could've gotten thousands of CPU's. Hindsight.
Seems like every video has something new. Thanks
I believe that not all the copper in the plates dissolved completely and that same undissolved copper cemented the gold back into solution, which precipitated in the form of fine powder imperceptible to the naked eye.
We ❤ the scrap refines. People say almost anything. You kind Sir break the myths that the yeilds r high in certain scrap they sell.All the best to you and the Mrs's.
Oh BTW ... these days it's much more profitable to NOT do this. They weren't all that common back in the day and plenty have been recycled for gold content they're becoming quite rare in fully working form - especially if you have a working PC motherboard with them. Collectors often pay over $50 a piece if they're own good shape. There are heaps of CPU collectors out there because they're leveraging both rarity and precious metals prices.
only $50 a piece? The Cost of a Pentium Pro back when they came out was over $1000. I remember paying $150 at a computer show for a used Pentium 75mhz. Now when I find them, they just go into a bucket waiting for my next refine.
@@scrapman502 Yes, $50 is low. Some get $100 or much more, but they're going to approach retail sooner rather than later.
Not 10 years ago in my part of the world, companies were forced to pay to get them taken them away and recycled.. Boards usually ended up being shipped to Africa when kids would pull them apart with their bare hands then burn them in makeshift furnaces or crush and use cyanide to get the Ag, Au and PGMs - no safety gear. Shocking.
Yes I remember they. were horrendously expensive new, but gold was $400 ozt at the time. Every single one which gets busted up just makes those still alive more valuable for the collectors. :).
Which do you think is leveraged more? The collectors side of it? Or the metals side?
@@ericmcmanus5179collector side, theyre worth more than the scrap value, its worse when ypu consider the cost of materials and labor to melt them down.
Can't really put a price on gold denominated by a depleting currency, Gold and silver is the head of AI, gold some type of intelligent processor and silver a conductor, then there's the fact bitcoin wouldn't exist without it and somehow it's worth more? Sounds like bs, just observation
These will be worth significantly more than the gold contained in a couple years because of this. Keep any of them that have a 1M L2 cache, seriously the vintage computer market for rare components like these is going nuts.
1mb models are completely different, those are black fiber Pentium Pros.
You're totally right, I had completely forgotten.
Oh man, I was expecting you'd get about a half of a gram per CPU. That's a lower yield on those older ( significantly more gold laden ) chips than I was expecting them to be. Thank you for showing how even these higher gold-content, older chips, aren't very cost effective to extract the gold from unless one gets them super cheap ( or for free ! )
It's worth with the price, just hit the BEP in my country that chips selled about 15.65 dollar per piece which is same price as you got in this video.
Thank you so much for this, and all the other videos you have made!
This one in particular has hit home, at exactly the right time!
As I've run into a similar problem on a batch of Pentium processor's I've been working on.
I cooked the copper backs off the CPU's first.
In a camp oven, on my rock kiln.
But I didn't do the pre-bolis with Nitric that you did in this Vid.
I went straight to Aqua Regia, and the batch turned Very, very dark green.
I'm guessing that means there's still a lot of copper in solution,
I probably haven't filtered enough, and added too much nitric.
Then I think I went a little heavy de-noxxing with Sulphamic acid
And trying to drop the gold out with SMB.
a I now have several jars, of really dark green stuff to re-refine
In fact, it's so dark, there's no point even trying a stannous test
Because I couldn't tell the difference!
And a jar with some unrecognisable sludge at the bottom that might be gold
Which I guess I need to filter more!
But now that I'm this far in,
Any idea's on how to start again from scratch would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks again, for all your good work!
Pentium Pro CPUs have some of the highest gold content of all computer scrap. I’ve never been able to get more than 0.3g of pure gold per cpu. Other CPUs will much less gold in them, probably less than a tenth of a tenth of a gram per CPU. So it will take one hundred of your CPUs (unless they are Pentium pro) to get just one gram of pure gold. Also, recovery and refining are two totally different processes. Aqua Regia is a refining reagent and should be use only AFTED the gold has been recovered. The nitric boils will release any gold from the base metals for a good recovery. Then you can use AR to refine the recovered gold. My guess is that you probably have very little (almost nothing) gold in with a ton of base metals. This is a common beginner mistake: expecting a tenth ounce of pure gold from a kilo of low-yielding CPUs. I made this mistake when I first started, and I learned from it and moved on, chalking it up as an expensive education on what not to do.
@@sreetips Rookie mistakes is where I'm at right now! And I'm making plenty!
I built my own fume hood out of pallets and stuff. 2 months into things,
the extraction fan suddenly let all the magic smoke out!!
I'm not sure if that was a short between terminals, or the fumes had eaten the copper in the motor.
So I'm currently rebuilding the way the whole fume hood works,
So air is pumped INTO the box,
instead of being sucked out of the box
But it makes designing & getting it working just that little bit more complex.
My first batch of processing was JUST the chips off ram boards,
which I desoldered with a paint stripper heat gun, I cooked them with a gas torch,
crushed them in a blender till they were powdered
(And naturally, I ruined the first blender)
Then did my first aqua Regia treatments
and so, on, and I did manage to get 0.63 grams of gold out of that!
Given it was my first try at it,
So I'm really happy with that!
I got some GOOLD!
But as you can probbly tell by my description
of the CPU's, I'm on a learning curve
Which is always part of the fun.
Big Thanks for what you've posted
You've not just taught me every thing I know!
You're also teaching me a hell of a lot of stuff I don't!
I've been watching a hell of a lot of you-tube stuff on doing this, and one thing has really struck me as I'm trying it for myself.
EVERYONE on youtube has a slightly different approach,
often for cost and other reasons
And many are downright scary due to the completely unsafe ways they do it!
BUT, if you do watch, there's some interesting approaches to the same pronblem, and they get results.
I guess I better shut the hell up
sit down,
And read some C.M. Hoke for a bit
Before mixing any more chemicals!
Happy refining!
And a merry 2025 to ya!
1.9g, or US$76 as I write this from 8 Pentium Pro CPUs.
How much does an untested 256k Pentium Pro sell for on eBay? About US$35. So those 8 CPUs would sell for US$280.
Now it's fascinating seeing how much gold was used in these things and seeing the entire process, but if you're thinking of doing this to earn money: Stop and think again.
I bought a total of 15 CPUs. Paid about five or six hundred bucks (can’t remember exactly because it doesn’t matter). But only eight of them came in. I did this to earn currency. But not from the gold that I recovered. From the video. The gold, I’m keeping, it’s just a little bonus.
@@sreetips Yes, you are doing this right. The video is your income earner and I enjoy watching you process gold.
@@sreetipsyoure incentivizing people to think the scrap value of these is worth the destruction, lots of idiots are out in the world and will rip out processors that collectors desire just to end up scrapping them for a fraction of the items actual value.
@@naganomancer sorry, that wasn’t my intent.
@@naganomancer it also ultimately increases the value for the collectors
Now this video i liked to see, it reminds me of my first attempt at e-waste recovery. fast n dirty doesn't always work, to much nitric acid, all the mistakes we could make . Great lesson!
I could have saved myself some grief had I just evaporated the solution to drive off excess nitric. I was trying force the reaction during precipitation. Never a good idea.
Hello, I would like to receive training from you for palladium platinum. I received training from a friend, we bring the product until it collapses, but after that I have problems. @@sreetips
Unfortunately I don’t offer any training or tutoring services. This is my hobby.
@@sreetips I am afraid to say your way more of a instructor to many of us out here in the world than you can imagine. What i learn from reading helps,but seeing you hands on is so helpful in many many ways. I pray you never stop this hobby. Cheers and thank you
Thank you
I upgraded from a Pentium 75 to a quad processor Pentium pro and it was world changing in the late 90s. Cool cpus.
You just needed an excuse to get some new beakers.
Whew, that was a rough one! Yield should have definitely been 2.4-2.6 grams, gold was lost along the way. That yellow precipitate is tungsten I believe. Small tip if I may.. adding 3-6 ml of conc sulfuric acid to the nitric boils will help the nitric attack and dissolve out the Kovar (similar to stainless steel).
Thanks for sharing even when it doesn’t go according to plan!
I seen some gold forming in the waste solution. I’ll make another video and add it for a total yield. I was in a hurry to post the video. Only took seven hours start to finish. Trying to force reactions to happen never ends well.
Kovar is an iron-nickel alloy, whereas stainless steel contains chromium and sometimes other metals.
When the Kovar parts aren't plated (such as the legs of many PROMs), after ashing and grinding, the kovar can simply be pulled out with a magnet.
@@Alondro77 Thanks, I’m very aware of what Kovar is, you forgot Cobalt. Most items, specifically ceramics where it’s used on the legs, pins and caps are indeed gold plated and ashing isn’t suitable for those types of components thus dissolving it is required.
so cool - ty so much for showing this - so cool. its funny im an it guy and i usually save a bunch of these chips along with the old copper fins they used to use to cool them off. so funny how huge they used to be back in the day.
Happy Sunday morning, guys. This is a treat. Thank you. I thought those Pentium processors were extinct by now😂
I was wondering if there was a difference. I'll leave this to you though ❤ thanks for another good one, always fun to be shown how to get every single micromole of gold or pgm from a source
I remember buying about 100 Pentium 4 IBM Surplus computers at the time where they were not considered expensive nor collectable for around $10 each. I removed all the 33mhz CPU's and replaced them all with DX2-66 CPU's. I remember keeping them in a box for a while and ended up selling them to some guy for $25 or $30 for the entire box. In hindsight, I think I lost a lot of money. (and GOLD)
One issue you might be coming across is that the gold is not always bonded to another metallic substrate. The gold wires are deposited directly onto the silicon which the nitric won't touch.
Before you dumped the chips into the first beaker I thought to myself, isn’t the beaker going to break if he dumbs them in like that.
ESP
@@sreetips lol 😂
The ceramic they used to encase the chips is probably what broke the beaker. When you break them up, leave very sharp ceramic points that will destroy your glassware.
Pentium Pro chips circa '95-2000. Just imagine how many hours of Diablo, Diablo II, Age of Empires, and Starcraft those chips made possible...
Not that much actually. I remember those when they came out. The coolers on those things are tiny by today's comparison, but back then they were massive. It was definitely intended for a high-end workstation PC, with matching price point. Well out of reach of me in my early twenties. Most people upgraded from Pentium to the more consumer focussed Pentium II instead.
@@Hydrazine1000 I've worked with computers repairing & selling them for over 30 years. the only Pentium Pro CPUs I've ever seen were in Dual processor Motherboards, most likely servers. I may have seen 1-2 home-built computers with a single Pentium Pro CPU. That's how rare they were.
@@scrapman502 Yeah, at the time I lived in a city with a university of technology (where I was studying Materials Science & Engineering) so maybe they were a tad more common around there because of that. Think Windows NT workstations for CAD, early Photoshop and the likes.
That ceramic substrate is incredibly hard and sharp haha. I’ve gone through several pricey big beakers over the years because of it haha.
Also be careful when stirring and try not to do it too much. You’ll notice how badly the beaker becomes scratched, especially when you drop the gold out and it’s stuck to the sides haha
Hiya professor Tips another great film boss I've been learning alot from your films putting things to good use but please professor burn or bake chip untill you can grind all to dust then start acid process use a lot less acid and recover more gold boss this I've learnt by following you here and experimenting the duster the better for recovery grinding to dust and water and gravity before acid is another great process loving theses films any chance of any more on recovery of platinum and palladium please cheers Prof
I’ve got some PGMs saved up. Accumulating slowly so I’ll have enough to get a decent yield.
So much conjecture online as to how much gold recovery in every ceramic Pentium Pro. With sreetips excellent technique I'm going to call this experiment the definitive answer. Despite the fact I actually reviewed these on radio and TV when brand new, installed a couple of dual processor machines and wrote some custom assembly code for them, it's good to see them pulverised and recycled into real money!!!
Nope. I'm sorry to say it, but this refining was uncharacteristically sloppy for Streetips. As his next video shows the yield is low. But you really don't need that confirmation to see it in this video.
I'm not running down Streetips. I'm a fan. He knows what he's doing or tells you when he doesn't. He was just off today. Happens to the everyone now and then.
I was anxious to get the video posted on a Saturday night. Saturday is a good night to post because folks are more likely to watch a video on a weekend night. Plus, I don’t have a lot of experience with these CPUs. I’ve got another batch arriving and now that I have a fresh experience under my belt, I’ll go slower and see if I can iron out some of the problems I experienced with this recovery.
@@guygordon2780 One way or another, he was going to get a final yield that is definitive. That's the whole point. If the yield were low, his technique is good enough that he'd work it out for himself... and he did. It only proves what I was saying.
Having been a computer systems engineer and broadcast tech journalist with direct dealings with Intel, AMD, TI, NEC, Inmos and a bunch of other less well known hardware companies back in the 90s, I happen to know pretty accurately how most individual chips were designed, fabbed and packaged. To the surprise of many, a few epoxy-resin-plastic packages contained even more gold than their consumer-oriented ceramic parts.
It all depends on the grade of the ICs. If they were mil spec then it is virtually always higher yielding as money is no object.
Radiation-hardened devices use relatively large amounts of gold if they're destined for aerospace applications where shielding is critical. Automotive spec chips usually have quite a bit more than consumer too. If you can get your hands on hybrid ICs, particularly for RF applications, they also were and still are.
I'd still advise against just turning any BGA IC into ash and hitting it with AR as many of these older devices have ultra-nasties on board and require excellent chemistry techniques to prevent exposure to carcinogens, genotoxins and a myriad of oxides of otherwise harmless metals; especially the PGMs. Beryllium was widely used, arsenic in GaAs FETs, even germanium used to be regarded as safe but now it's not. These go on and on.
The point is there's more to excellent technique than ultra-high yield; the safety side is far more important than just "giving it a go" outside and hoping for the best.
I was just about to comment man he sure is being a little rough on that glassware hope it doesn't break
Nice video, to avoid miss some gold while melting small amount of gold powder (tiny particles) I prefer to boil SMB with some water and some milliliters of sulphuric acid in a beaker then pour AR gold solution in same beaker then heat for 10 minutes, that will give you very large Spong gold pieces
I think better recovery would be possible with the material crushed more finely.
Breaking the beaker reminded me of throwing a piece of broken porcelain off a spark plug at an old car window. Makes sense the chips are ceramic as well. Thanks for the multiple vids this week Chief. SREETIPS is my favorite refiner on the Tube. 😊
i never understood why it had to be spark plugs 😂 pretty sure there's easier porcelain in the world to get at for the folks who would do this. like, wouldn't a shard of coffee cup work? or just throw a whole old toilet at someone's car window.
I really appreciate the wristwatch!
I would have guessed more. Thank you for sharing this enjoyable and informative video with us six stars sir
You could probably get some silver from the first nitric boils.
The yield on these can be unpredictable. The ones with the 512K cache have the higher yields. The 256K cache has the lower yields. Either way, I don’t mess with these any more. People charge to much for them because of the fake information floating around alleging 1g per cpu.
I don’t normally process much escrap. But it’s very popular because of the myth: there’s an ounce of pure gold in every scrap PC waiting for those who can figure out how to get it.
the price is up because of collectors not because of scrappers
The different size caches hold different amounts of Au. Ive also noticed small amounts of Au cement onto the titanium plate
The 24k wires are strung through(inside) the ceramic , has to be crushed up because the ceramic is the mold and insulator for the wiring
The Pentium Pro Cpu's have Gold plated IRON pins. You were better off boiling them in pure hydrochloric acid for about an Hour or two before using the nitric. Nitric doesn't dissolve Iron very well. The HCL does a much better job. When you're done, you're going to end up with a very dirty solution.
Ceramic breaks glass pretty easily thats why people break car windows with spark plugs lol.
Found it out the hard way. That beaker was one of my work horses.
Can we use oxygen concentrator machine in place of oxygen cylinder for gold melting
I don’t know, I’ve never tried it.
Can you please try oxigen concentrator machine for us it's work or not @@sreetips
Can you please let us know what capacity oxigen cylenderhave been used by you and also share information how much oxigen used in single melting process @@sreetips
Sorry, I don’t have an oxygen concentrator.
I don’t know how to determine the amount of oxygen that I use.
May i also ask how much did you pay for the 8 cpu for this test? I am having a very hard time finding these parts to buy here in taiwan to work with. There trying to charge me full gold price on the scrape
Absolutely. I paid five or six hundred bucks for 15 CPUs. I can’t remember exactly. Maybe about fifty bucks each or something like that. But it doesn’t matter to me. I’m keeping the gold. And, hopefully, the real value will be in the video.
Sad to see that beaker break! I'm sure that was not an inexpensive mistake. And then you risked another by doing about the same thing. I hope next time for such a simple task use a metal pan - IMO I don't need to see something cooling off and sure don't want you to risk destroying another valuable piece of equipment.
Also those chips should likely have been crushed much finer and I think you went too quickly to AR that you were not getting the full yield possible and had not dissolved all the base metals.
[story time :) ]
When working at the university one of the things we eventually had to do was auction off the mainframe computer (original cost millions of dollars), it was loaded with gold plated electronics and in today's market would probably have been worth many times the approx $1,200 we got for it. It was purchased by a metal refining outfit - they had to come get it and haul it away. Even at back then prices I'm sure they made out well on the deal. As a comparison of size, it took up most of a rather large room (50x80ft or so).
My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000, then I moved up to a Commodore Vic20, then to a Commodore 64. It had a whopping 64k of RAM!
Just remember folks, nostalgia is a form of depression. It's subtle but no less pervasive. I grew up with these same chips in my life, but my interest in smelting and precious metal recovery far surpasses the desire to be stuck in the past. It's more than a little weird to see people turning into conservatives over a processor that was mostly used in workstations and servers.
Like throwing a sparkplug fragment at a car window that ceramic will easily break tempered glass. Those old pros are the best for gold I bet
I remember when I was 18 or 19 I got a job at a PC manufacturer. I got to see a whole tray of Pentium Pro CPUs and I was in awe. Now they are being hammered down for consumption. Recycling is good. Gold is good, but those poor CPUs. I hope they all were broken prior to destruction. Yeah, I'll just go with that.
I'm pretty sure a functioning PP would be worth more than the gold.
I don’t know why, they are not very fast compared to today’s processors. But it doesn’t matter. I needed them for this experiment.
@@sreetips Collectors! They are rare nowadays. Yes, they are very slow compared to today's stuff.
Before breaking the cpu, remove the silicon die with heat, there is gold plating under the silicon die, It cannot be removed by acid.
Thank you so much and God bless you
Two gram from 8 cpus that’s high for 8 cpu cool video bro as always love it
Hello sir, nice result, may be some urea could be handy in excess nitric... Today I worked on 12O g of RAM chips, expecting 0.3, actual bead was 0.25 g... No acid used, burn, crush, goldpanning, cupelation with bismuth... Calm afternoon in garden... And I broke beacher too 🙂
I don't think I have seen anything so satisfying as you taking a hammer to those Pentium chips 😂
Sorry to use these harsh words but scrapping Pentium Pro CPUs for their gold content is borderline stupid nowadays. These are worth much more as working CPUs for collectors. These easily go for 40..50€ here in Europe and even more in good condition. I'm sure it's not much different in the US. So you just destroyed 320...400€ worth of CPUs to yield 135€ of gold. And they were even in good shape, no bent pins on the one you showed at the beginning. The same is true for other gold top CPUs that are cheaper but yield less gold. You always maximise your win by selling them as long as they are in good shape. While I usually enjoy your videos and wisdom about this topic, this was an instruction video on what NOT to do.
I didn’t do this for the gold, I did it for the video. The gold is just a bonus.
@@sreetips That's what I thought. But you already have 3 videos with Pentium Pro CPUs so I really don't see the benefit. I mean when you get jewelry from estate sales, you sell the items that are worth more than their scrap value as they are. I think scrapping stuff should be the last option. But I understand that you want to offer a bit of diversity for your viewers. Thank you for that (:
@@gennideehes making your beloved “rare cpus” even more rare for u. 🙂👍
@@miked2247 That's true but I actually don't collect them. I think it's just good practice to not destroy things that can otherwise be used and are sought after, especially when destroying them yields less money than selling them. But yeah, the less the more valuable.
I’m searching for that magic video that will get me a million views.
Awesome video nice gold bead thanks for sharing sreetips
Wow! Streetips you have been at this for years! Thank you for sharing your experience, and keeping us informed and safe. Have you tried the circuit boards on eBay?
No, the yields are just too low.
@@sreetipsthank you for sharing your experience. I can’t do my favorite hobby, gold prospecting. My back is so bad. I’m trying to find a new hobby.
I tried metal detecting about thirty years ago when I was still young. And it killed my back even then.
Hello Mr. Sreetips, this is old video that you put back online?
I think I've already seen it on your RUclips channel.
No, this is a new one. But I’ve done these a long time ago. Computer scrap is very popular. Trying to hit a million views. Never know what will hit.
@@sreetips I've been following your videos for years and remember most of them👏
ruclips.net/video/S2UKOtyiN6s/видео.html
I’m glad you smash up all the junk in the name of discovery. The gold is of much more use and value. I assure you I have benefited a great deal more because of the video than some collector who would idolize a bit of useless trash
FYI when processing electronics ceramics: some old ones use beryllium in the ceramic to improve thermal properties. The dust from those is extremely toxic, so be careful when working with them in ways that produce dust.
Good advice, thank you.
i imagine that material on those chips is ceramic, so when you dropped it in the beaker it was like using a broken sparkplug to break a window
I’ve never heard of that. But I believe it true.
I love that blue green color from the first nitric wash
Im reminded about the platinum recovery for catylitic converters. A whole lotta work for small amount of gold. Yes i know it all adds up. But add in the chemicals and your time. Its not a win win situation
Correct. It’s a lot of work for very little metal.
There might be some tin and probably lead in the solder used for the cap,
Wow, the beaker broke that was a first. I have wondered if those break or not as they are tempered.
I should have known better than to drop heavy ceramic in there like that. That was one of my work horses.
Hi Streetips! Great seeing you doing processors. Thank you 😃 Have you done scrap bars selling on EBay?
Yes, avoid those. They are a complete scam. You’ll pay fifty bucks for a couple dollars worth of brass.
@@sreetipsthank you so much. It did seem fishy.
As far as refining goes, this is very educational. From a money-making point of view, its a bad idea. By my calculations you could sell 8 Intel Pentium Pros for roughly $180.00 as is (current price $115 per pound). The 2g button is worth about $160 from what I see online ($80 per gram as of today). Factor in your time, how much (if anything) you paid for them, plus the health risks....its just not worth it. I looked into refining when I started my e-scrap business 12 years ago and found out early on that it would only be a labor of love, not for profit. With that said, your videos are great to watch from a scientific perspective!
I needed them to make the video.
@@sreetips understood, and your videos are gold to me :)
It's really interesting that they broke your beaker, I wonder if it was because they're kind of ceramic-y?
Like when you throw spark plug ceramic at glass it shatters?
Would you be willing to make a video about your fume hood and the materials needed to make it?
I have a video posted about installing my fume hood posted on my channel.
I've been waiting for one of these videos for a while. So many questions. Does the antimony precipitate with the lead. What about gallium and other metals used to dope silicon? Do the wash out in the nitric? Or at such low concentration it's not worth recovering.
I know nothing about those other metals. I’m only interested in the GOLD.
The first time I melted borax I was amazed by my "snow"flake filled room, I see that in your video! Great one!
Yes, it will make it snow.
@@sreetips Should we be breathing that stuff? You are probably masked up.
I’d say to not breath any reagents from these refining processes.
What was rhe point of that initial burn before it went into the distilled water?
I’ve tried this but now Windows won’t boot.
The aqua regia looks like the same color as a gold filled recovery/refining regia. Did you put it back into solution a 2nd time? Because the button came out fantastic and super shiny!
No, I’ll just throw it in with my next bath of karat scrap and re-refine it then.
These CPU meltdowns are always fascinating. 👍🏻
Can you please direct me to a video that shows how to set up the exhaust or flowhood or whatever you use to control the toxic gas element? Are you on a backup power source like a diesel or solar generator in case of failure, or is it more like do it in a well ventilated area...?
Everything else seems cut and dry, have a lot of experience with things like mycology/botany/aquaculture/aquaponics/hydroponics/etc but I'm new to working with heavy acids that have lethal gases.
Side note: The dish you are using is the same exact kind as the ones my mom had growing up. Think there is still or two out there.
I have a pictorial video of the installation of my fume hood. Did it all myself. But I’d recommend a hood that’s suitable for acid digestions, no metal parts. I buy Corning ware casserole and baking dishes at yard sales and estate sales. A few bucks each.
@@sreetips Thanks I'll look for the fume hood in your videos. I appreciate it. Can't really run the cells without the fumes, lol.
@@sreetips After researching yours and one other, they are basically the exact opposite of a flowhood but with similar workspace for your hands.
Except they are far cheaper to make and maintain. To get the static flow through a custom HEPA filter for a flowhood right is a real pain, whereas this only requires a 4" inline fan aiming either up, or ducted out.
The only issue I see is I would have to duct mine out as I rent and can't add a toxic chimney to my landlords place if you know what I mean.
He'd probably never say anything but still not a risk I want to take, lol. Plenty of experience with ducting so I'll find a way soon.
I keep getting 925 silver through the Amazon Vine program (products for reviews) and scoring over at the local Goodwill. Seems like all people don't buy over there is silver and gold plate.
Collections worth more on eBay, hard not to just shine those ones up and buy more silver/gold :P
Oh, question I meant to ask before - where do you buy your nitric acid or do you make your own?
I've heard it can be made with potatoes but I'd rather not worry about getting extra things right my first runs.
Surely the chips need to be crushed to a powder to get all the internal gold content ?
Not necessary.
The yellow powder is tungsten which oxidized from the high heat. Makes a mess.
Thanks
Nice job on the videos. Ever try ro neutralize the nitric with def fluid or urea?
No
Call me clueless, but what is the black substrate material? Is it a plastic such as bakelite?
I think it’s ceramic.
Would you do a walk-through about the fume hood setup?
I have a still photo video posted on my fume hood installation.
as of 9/19/2024, that's about $118. wonder what those cpus went for
I paid between $35 to $55 per cpu.
face reveal at 18:25
0.35g Au per chip is the best yield I’ve got so far when it comes to PPro, 0.3g being the lowest, so I guess they vary from chip to chip
Have you got a database of your findings. Would be an awesome read.
Only my videos
@@sreetips cheers for the reply brother I will keep logging them with the rest of the channels. Regards from England
There's 24k mm wire in those chips, not to be picky but pounding them on the concrete is the worst and stick to concrete, they're visible in camera chips behind the lense
Amazing, do you think the casings hindered the gold to precipitate, or was it too much acid?
Could be one of many things.
Who woulda thunk! Pentium Pro processors were actually good for something after all! 😆
Where did you find those tweezers you use to handle burned material?
Flea market, two bucks.
These are technically the 2nd highest yielding consumer processors. The absolute highest yielding consumer CPUs ive ever processed were the pentium pro black. They range from 0.78 on the lowest to 0.97g per processor!
Basically the same concept with the pro blacks, except they have 3 dies in them instead of 2 like the ceramics. Comparatively thick bonding wires to each die as well.
Pentium Pro Black. I’ve heard of them.
I have 5 of the 512 and 4 of the 256 im gonna test extract seperatly to determine the difference in cache size to gold per each
How much in nitric acid costs are you going through? How much actual nitric acid can you re-use and how long does it last before you have to replace it? High strength acid costs around $70 US per liter. All the costs associated with the fuel and energy you use, I am curious how much overhead you have to produce the silver and gold you make.
The last time I bought nitric acid it was $458 for six 2.5 liter bottles including shipping charges. It will probably be closer to five hundred next time I order it, especially with the amount of currency that will be created in the next four years. The shipping charge alone was a hundred fifty (used to be just fifty bucks). That amount of nitric will last me about 6 to 8 months depending on what kind of material I am processing.