# ENORMOUS gold plated heat sinks - simply crazy



## alexxx (Dec 4, 2013)

check this out, first time I see a beast like this.
Next to the gigantic gold plated heat sink there's a regular p4 heat sink.
Now imagine the cpus these bad boys were cooling...

Will post yields in a few days...

















Alex


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## Anonymous (Dec 4, 2013)

Alex what kit exactly did these come from please?


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## moose7802 (Dec 4, 2013)

That's awesome! Can't wait to see the yield, there's quite a bit of surface area there. 

Tyler


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## alexxx (Dec 4, 2013)

spaceships said:


> Alex what kit exactly did these come from please?



A friend of mine gave me these for toll refining. He only told me it comes from an old IBM mainframe.
We don't know much besides that...


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## Anonymous (Dec 4, 2013)

No worries that's a good enough answer for me Alex!

Good luck with it, those older IBM mainframes have a lot of good stuff in them.


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## macfixer01 (Dec 4, 2013)

I see you broke some fins off, or maybe just got them that way. Can you press those fins out of their slots? It would be a shame to have to have to dissolve the whole base plate to get out the gold trapped inside the slots.


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## Golddigger Greg (Dec 4, 2013)

I can't help but think of Harold when I read this. I imagined him asking you the tough question; "What makes you think it is plated with gold? Just because it looks like it, and you wish it to be? That won't make it so. Even in the days of relatively cheap gold, computer makers didn't just plate things without a purpose. What would the purpose of gold plating a heat sink be?" I'd be skeptical of gold, and lean toward anodized aluminum, but do your qualitative tests to be sure. If it turns out to be gold, I'd be surprised, and quite happy for you.


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## alexxx (Dec 4, 2013)

macfixer01 said:


> I see you broke some fins off, or maybe just got them that way. Can you press those fins out of their slots? It would be a shame to have to have to dissolve the whole base plate to get out the gold trapped inside the slots.




yup, got these that way and I believe I will be able to remove the plates to get all the plating off.

Greg, yes haha, I've asked myself the same question prior to receiving the material. We tried 1 of the plate in the cell, dissolved the powder in ar and positive stannous test.

Plates need good rinsing tho, since there is plating inside as well, as you can see on the magnified picture from the plates.


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## Anonymous (Dec 4, 2013)

Gregg the clue was in the old IBM mainframe comment earlier. They did some whacky things with PMs in those things. I know what you mean about anodised aluminium but that didn't cross the minds of the old IBM mainframe developers. Money was no object in the scheme of what they were paid for their products.


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## Golddigger Greg (Dec 4, 2013)

Colour me surprised and equally happy for you then! :mrgreen: 
All I could find on gold-plated heat sinks were discussions among over-clockers and those that wanted their machines to look 'cool' when the lid was popped open. I guess the designers at IBM in those days fell into the latter category.


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## alexxx (Dec 4, 2013)

Golddigger Greg said:


> Even in the days of relatively cheap gold, computer makers didn't just plate things without a purpose.



Well, I don't agree with you on this one. And I have been reading this affirmation a lot on the forum.
Most of the time, well, almost all the time, this statement is very true, since gold is there for a specific purpose... either for conductivity, corrosion resistance or heat resistance.

But, I have seen a few high end hardware parts plated for no reason besides "let's make it shiny so the selling price is supported". You will see such things more often than you think in old mainframes, old telecom and military equipment. Mainly the high end hardware paid with your taxes in fact...

Things such as whole cables plated, the exterior server hard drives, heat sinks, not so old network cards... there' is out there unnecessary gold plated electronics.

If you want to pay big bucks, you can buy even these days a gold plated ipad, a gold plated xbox... Even I, waited 2 more weeks and paid a prime to get my new iphone 5s in gold tone...

Guy says to another guy "Hey, why is it so expensive" ?
The other guy answers back "Well buddy, there's gold in there, see here... and here. And it's way better with gold !"
First guy answers back "Hoooo, I see... ok, I want that shiny thing"

Shiny things sells... and to a better price...


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## resabed01 (Dec 4, 2013)

Looks like anodized aluminum to me. But I could be wrong, I wouldn't know unless I had one of those in my hands.


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## macfixer01 (Dec 4, 2013)

Golddigger Greg said:


> I can't help but think of Harold when I read this. I imagined him asking you the tough question; "What makes you think it is plated with gold? Just because it looks like it, and you wish it to be? That won't make it so. Even in the days of relatively cheap gold, computer makers didn't just plate things without a purpose. What would the purpose of gold plating a heat sink be?" I'd be skeptical of gold, and lean toward anodized aluminum, but do your qualitative tests to be sure. If it turns out to be gold, I'd be surprised, and quite happy for you.




I wondered the same thing at first, but I've seen Alexxx's posts around the Forum a lot and I didn't think he'd be fooled by anodized aluminum like a newbie would. Especially in a toll refining situation, I assumed he would have tested it right away on receipt. Also the photo of the bottom side where it's scratched up and worn looks just like some gold plated heatsink pieces I have, although mine pale in size compared to these beasts.


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## glondor (Dec 5, 2013)

If that is aluminium, a nice bath in hot 50/50 nitric/h2o should sluff the gold off in foil sheets. It will get the inside of the fins as well.


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## Anonymous (Dec 5, 2013)

Some of this older kit reached prices of millions of dollars per configured unit. I really do believe that at least some of the gold plating was done in order to let the buyers think that they really had better value for money.

The boards in some of the HP kit definitely have more gold than needed :lol:


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## silversaddle1 (Dec 5, 2013)

But why? I hope it is a gold plating on the heat sink, but what is the purpose? If these did indeed come out of a old IBM mainframe, hey I've scrapped a few of those. You don't just open it up and say "Look at the pretty gold". No, these things would be deep inside the machine enclosed in a shroud with big fans on them. Whatever they are, they are cool!


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## Anonymous (Dec 5, 2013)

I honestly don't think that there IS a why mate. It's almost like it's more a case of "because we can." Some of the HP motherboards cost £50,000 plus each, and some of it genuinely is almost decorative. It's certainly not laid on in a frugal manner.


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## silversaddle1 (Dec 5, 2013)

spaceships said:


> I honestly don't think that there IS a why mate. It's almost like it's more a case of "because we can." Some of the HP motherboards cost £50,000 plus each, and some of it genuinely is almost decorative. It's certainly not laid on in a frugal manner.



And I have scrapped quarter of a million dollar HP server/mainframes. Yes, the HP boards do have lots of gold flash plating on them, but it serves a purpose. these, not so much. I'm not a tech geek, but would find it interesting to discover the logic behind it.

If you have not seen one before, here is a huge old IBM mainframe CPU. This is not a real old one, but you get the idea.

And yes, before anyone ask, the half dollar is an error coin. In fact, it's a double error as it's stamped off center and double stamped on the face.


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## Anonymous (Dec 5, 2013)

Ahh I would die to be able to scrap that kind of IBM equipment. The sad thing is that the true scrap value of those wasn't known by most people who had access to them at the time.

I believe that the lads have some of the HP boxes that I'm referring to to scrap either tomorrow or Monday so I'll grab a pic of the type of thing I'm referring to and it will hopefully explain better what I meant. I have to confess that I am a bit of a tech geek, the waste side came 14 years into the business.

Regards

Jon


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## silversaddle1 (Dec 5, 2013)

I sold that CPU on ebay after some discussion here on GFR.


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## Anonymous (Dec 5, 2013)

Go on how much ? :lol:


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## alexxx (Dec 5, 2013)

spaceships said:


> Go on how much ? :lol:



yup how much ??


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## moose7802 (Dec 5, 2013)

Please tell!! :lol:


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## silversaddle1 (Dec 5, 2013)

Well I'm pretty sure it brought around $360.00. Maybe I posted it on here. I may have to search my old post.


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## Anonymous (Dec 6, 2013)

Well if I recall you haven't seen it all but "nearly" (haha couldn't resist) - but I could tell you what those procs were trading for by weight last year if you like? *grins kindly*


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## rickbb (Dec 6, 2013)

alexxx said:


> "let's make it shiny so the selling price is supported".
> 
> Guy says to another guy "Hey, why is it so expensive" ?
> The other guy answers back "Well buddy, there's gold in there, see here... and here. And it's way better with gold !"
> ...



Exactly, when I was in the CD business we always had bands wanting their CD's metalized in 24k gold instead of Al because they thought it sounded better. There are still a few audiophiles that swear it does sound better from a gold CD than the normal Al. 

How it could possibly make a difference to a computer interpreting a digital signal to re-create sound from bytes is beyond me, but hey they paid for it.


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## Anonymous (Dec 6, 2013)

Well here's a pop quiz just in case anyone's interested. 

Which processors have one of the highest yield per processor ever made, and what's the yield range? Forget PC procs of any type.


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## silversaddle1 (Dec 6, 2013)

spaceships said:


> Well if I recall you haven't seen it all but "nearly" (haha couldn't resist) - but I could tell you what those procs were trading for by weight last year if you like? *grins kindly*



As we wait....... :lol:


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## g_axelsson (Dec 6, 2013)

I saw a picture of an experimental Sun CPU once, it had several solid gold bars running across the die to distribute power... I guess it would be a quite good contender... but I would never refine one of those. :lol: 

Then the question is how do you define a processor, is it a single chip? A single card or as one of my vintage computers I have, a full 19" rack of 30x40 cm cards full of custom and logic circuits making up the CPU. :mrgreen: 

.... or this one, 28g in one processor! :shock: 

Göran


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## Anonymous (Dec 6, 2013)

Single chip Goran. 

Ok Silver- the yield per chip was up to 100g. Each. Edit, this was in response to my question not the chip you posted. Mind you that one was one of the hot ones too. Can you remember the machine type it came out of by any chance?


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## macfixer01 (Dec 6, 2013)

rickbb said:


> alexxx said:
> 
> 
> > "let's make it shiny so the selling price is supported".
> ...




Wasn't there some fad where people were coating the edge of CD's with a magic marker because that also was supposed to improve the sound? You're exactly right, it's a digital copy. The data stream can't get any better than what was produced during the mastering process. Stupid people are more than willing to believe just about anything though.

Btw there is a similar large IBM processor I noticed on Ebay today. Just pulled up my browser history and looks like that one sold but they relisted a couple more. In any case here's a URL if anyone is interested. No it's not my auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261348489864


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## Anonymous (Dec 6, 2013)

That's a much newer processor matey. Saddle's had far more gold in it.


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## moose7802 (Jan 2, 2014)

So how about some yield data from the heat sinks? Just curious if there is any. 

Tyler


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## sharkhook (Jan 2, 2014)

On older CD drives the speeds got to be very high, such as the 52x speeds. They had a tendency to shatter cd's that weren't well balanced. A Magic Marker was used along the edge with the idea that it would help stabilize the disc much like weights on a car wheel. Sometimes several layers were added, some of those people went to real extremes trying to produce a better sound. I still have two old drives here that have shattered cd's in them, they could be fairly hazardous if a piece of any size came out of them when they broke. As for the gold on a cd, I think it mainly was an ego thing, but don't hold me to that one. The older lasers were pretty sensitive and gold may have actually played a difference in them, i guess.


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## gold4mike (Jan 3, 2014)

I preferred the gold colored Maxell CD's in the early days since I seemed to make fewer "coasters" using them. I bought a box of black discs once and had over 20% of them fail upon burning. It might have been a function of the particular drive I used, I can't remember what it was. 

Plextor drives were used when I built high end systems for business clients.


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## sharkhook (Jan 3, 2014)

I agree, the black cd's were pathetic. Maxell and Verbatim were two of my favorites with my older Plextor drives. They always seemed to hold up better over time as well.


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## Anonymous (Jan 3, 2014)

silversaddle1 said:


> spaceships said:
> 
> 
> > Well if I recall you haven't seen it all but "nearly" (haha couldn't resist) - but I could tell you what those procs were trading for by weight last year if you like? *grins kindly*
> ...



Sorry mate my apologies!! I completely missed your post there- up to £450 per Kg


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## bgp_scrap (Oct 25, 2014)

I recently got one of these in a high end gaming cpu. 
Tried melting a fin into shot, cutting a fin into smaller bits, scratching off some surface area to expose base metals. None reacted in the hno3, even without cutting the solution with water. Went to regia, stannous teste, and dropped 1g per fin. Total projected weight left 15.8g I dont know why these bad boys get used. But they can bring more into my shop any day! 
P.s this was around the copper h.s not the actual h.s instelf.


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## alexxx (Oct 27, 2014)

mines are still sitting in the shop... not enough time


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## bgp_scrap (Dec 3, 2014)

Just hit a second one.. But this ones a gee force, gygabyte so its scrawlings suggest. Research shows its only g.p but i'll post data several months from now as it's,-43c today and im not working outside in that xD


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## bgp_scrap (Dec 3, 2014)

The second one.


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## NobleMetalWorks (Dec 9, 2014)

If it is Al under Au plate, you can score the material, and process with HCl alone, then filter thebgold foil. You should do so in a container that can handle the heat, start with a small amount to familiarize yourself with the reaction. Al is highly reactive in HCl, there is a significant exothermic response. Also consider that this process produces large amounts of Hydrogen gas so should be done in a well ventilated area, away from heat, open flames, electronics or anything else that may cause a spark.


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## etack (Dec 9, 2014)

Hey Scott good to see you!!!!!!!

Eric


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## Anonymous (Dec 9, 2014)

NobleMetalWorks said:


> If it is Al under Au plate, you can score the material, and process with HCl alone, then filter thebgold foil. You should do so in a container that can handle the heat, start with a small amount to familiarize yourself with the reaction. Al is highly reactive in HCl, there is a significant exothermic response. Also consider that this process produces large amounts of Hydrogen gas so should be done in a well ventilated area, away from heat, open flames, electronics or anything else that may cause a spark.



I completely concur with this. I processed some radar wave guides recently that were heavy gold plate over Aluminium. Let the reaction take place outside, it's safer. Hydrogen gas in the relatively small quantities that you'll get from this is far safer than many of the other reactions we do for "passers by."


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## etack (Dec 9, 2014)

spaceships said:


> NobleMetalWorks said:
> 
> 
> > If it is Al under Au plate, you can score the material, and process with HCl alone, then filter thebgold foil. You should do so in a container that can handle the heat, start with a small amount to familiarize yourself with the reaction. Al is highly reactive in HCl, there is a significant exothermic response. Also consider that this process produces large amounts of Hydrogen gas so should be done in a well ventilated area, away from heat, open flames, electronics or anything else that may cause a spark.
> ...




I had some material last summer that was GP Al rings. I scored them and soaked them in nitric. Al cannot be plated with Au with out a cooper layer first, same with Al over silver(this is in the early years by GSP). Use nitric and then you can sell the Al later too.

Eric


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