In Pictures: Tom's Hardware Recovers Gold And Silver From CPUs

[geok1ng]

i would love that TH stopped once and for all of using this web intreface for articles. Way too many clicks for way too little information. The readers reaction the first time it was used in an article about wireless performance months ago was negative. And negative it remains.

 

[clonazepam]

[citation][nom]geok1ng[/nom]i would love that TH stopped once and for all of using this web intreface for articles. Way too many clicks for way too little information. The readers reaction the first time it was used in an article about wireless performance months ago was negative. And negative it remains.[/citation]

I have to disagree with you. This article is a perfect example of when it works well. The "when" to use it can be hit or miss, but I think this one is a definite hit. The pictures tell the story in this article.

 

[Guest]

I thinks that not worth to do because while you doing this it can shortened your life or even kill you

 

[buzznut]

I was selling some old cards once, mostly old isa and pci video, sound, modem, and ethernet cards. Just had em out on a table during a garage sale. I had a guy who was obviously a gold collector who wouldn't give me more than 50 cents a card. I didn't sell them as I thought they were worth at least a buck a piece.
This should give an idea of the worth of the amount of precious metals that can be obtained in this way. There's a lot less of these metals on a CPU. So I'd say not worth the time and effort.

 

[Guest]

That pile of old CPUs is like porn lol.

I wonder what would happen if you put a CPU back in the machine after removing the silver? Probably nothing lol

 

[ChromeTusk]

The funny thing is that there are kits on e-bay which claim to let you get hundreds of dollars from this kind of process lol. I guess they forget to mention the time involved as well as the cost of chemicles to do it right. Recyclers make their money by doing this in mass, as well as using electrolisis for parts of the process which is a little more effective. They also go for the copper and rare earth elements which are too hard to get at in a home style setup.

That is why I just collect old parts from family, friends, and co-workers. After sorting all the components, I take the piles to local recyclers in batches to get bulk rates.

 

[jackbling]

[citation][nom]clonazepam[/nom]I have to disagree with you. This article is a perfect example of when it works well. The "when" to use it can be hit or miss, but I think this one is a definite hit. The pictures tell the story in this article.[/citation]

not to mention, the convenience of left and right arrow navigation. This was a largely visual piece, and they also fixed the issue with having to hit show more on every tile; im basically out of complaints on the picture story format.

 

[Au_equus]

a much cheaper/easier method of collecting silver: immerse a piece of elemental copper in a solution of AgNO3 (or a solution of noble metal nitrates) would precipitate as crystalline silver feathers. scrape, rinse and melt.

 

[djridonkulus]

As a chemist, I have to say that pretty much ALL of the gases released in the entire process described are extremely hazardous to human health. Working beside a window isn't exactly ideal. A fumehood would have been much better, and please tell me you were wearing all the necessary equipment - gloves, safety glasses, labcoat, etc.

Now that all the Safety Trolling is over with - to speed things up (=D), the dissolving parts could have been done on a hot plate set to about 97 degrees Celsius, boiled down to a small fraction (extremely dangerous - hot acid + more fumes), and diluted back up again with deionized water. This would have reduced the process down to a mere couple of hours instead of waiting days for it to dissolve naturally.

 

[pnorman]

[citation][nom]gmcizzle[/nom]And here I thought high school chemistry was useless. Don't try this at home though...well unless you want to see how fast chlorine gas kills everything around you.[/citation]
I'd say given the other chemicals used the Chlorine evolved is the least of your worries.

 

[rooket]

Pentium Pro CPUs are the only ones worth bothering with. The rest are junk. One Pentium Pro has about 1.1 grams of gold plated onto it. You'd need about 32 of those processors to make 1 troy ounce though so that isn't an easy feat. I don't know anyone that owns any more than two of those.

 

[AznCracker]

Whoa I took AP chem... didnt know you can do that.

 

[_Cubase_]

You made an AMD Bulletdozer!

 

[NuclearShadow]

The process is no doubt more costly and time consuming than the actual harvested precious metals. It's cool but rather pointless.

 

[a_gert]

Haven't thought about Cyrix CPUs in years, lol.

 

[Au_equus]

gold can be dissolved in aqua regia, HCl and HNO3 and avoid Cl2 gas. as a chemist (PhD), i wouldn't recommend the methods described by toms

 

[f-14]

http://goldprice.org/gold-price.html
Gold Price per Ounce
Conversion : 1 troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams
british pounds £1112.64
american dollars $1747.60

 

[ta152h]

[citation][nom]rooket[/nom]Pentium Pro CPUs are the only ones worth bothering with. The rest are junk. One Pentium Pro has about 1.1 grams of gold plated onto it. You'd need about 32 of those processors to make 1 troy ounce though so that isn't an easy feat. I don't know anyone that owns any more than two of those.[/citation]

I sold 20 of them on eBay. They sold for hotcakes at $25 a processor. I kept five, because they were new, and 1 MB L2 cache. I couldn't see some jackass looking for gold destroying those beauties, but the other ones were all beaten up and ugly, so off they went.

 

[ta152h]

[citation][nom]au_equus[/nom]gold can be dissolved in aqua regia, HCl and HNO3 and avoid Cl2 gas. as a chemist (PhD), i wouldn't recommend the methods described by toms[/citation]

HCL04 is a man's acid. HCL? A bit wimpy.

 

[egilbe]

Pro Safety Tip...Always Add Acid, never the other way around

 

[Au_equus]

[citation][nom]ta152h[/nom]HCL04 is a man's acid. HCL? A bit wimpy.[/citation]
perchloric acid, albeit a strong acid, is a weaker acid than HCl. aqua regia dissolves everything, including gold. HClO4 in inexperienced hands will blow up in your face.

 

[c_herring]

As a collector of vintage computer components, this article is like a knife to the soul. More than one Cyrix MII in that pile! Thank goodness I've already got one.

Thank goodness it doesn't look like there were any IDT WinChip 2 or 3 CPUs in there. That would have been too painful.

 

[jonboy26]

That's a decent recovery of sliver, but the amount of gold recovered is dismal and doesn't seem worth the cost of the reagents consumed.

 

[cookoy]

Excellent demonstration of chemical processes. I hope Tom's put up more articles like this than some worthless marketing news items.

 

[cmcghee358]

[citation][nom]nekoangel[/nom]I knew a teacher that used to collect and strip as much stuff from components and then send it up to a company that recycles it and pays you a cut.[/citation]

Cash4Gold dot com is a big secret!