Y can't I just melt the gold off of the motherboard?

[DedLuv]

Looking for low cost metal retrieval. I just don't like the thought of using the dangerous chemicals.

 

[COLGeek]

You can, but the cost of doing so often outweighs the amount recovered. There are many sites/links via Google that will let you see how it is done, but you need a significant pile of tech to get an amount to make it worth the effort.

 

[ccampy]

If you wanted 100g of gold you would need approx 10,000Kg of electrical devices

 

[cwatkin]

Sell the old cards to s scrap yard that pays decent for the boards you have to scrap. RAM and CPUs can go for $8 a lb while $1-3 is common for many other boards. The cheap crumbly yellow or brown boards as they are called only go for like 10 cents/lb. You are better off to take this stuff to someone like a scrap yard. I took on a few cat litter type buckets full of RAM and other boards and got several hundred dollars. The caustic chemical recovery isn't worth your while