# Gold in fiber CPU



## Romix (Jan 11, 2017)

Small fiber CPU's with heat sink, and circle foils on contacts instead of legs(pins).
Maybe Dual core, can't remmember name. 
There's more gold in them other then circle foils. 
All the lines under green protective paint are gold too, hard to spot, but it is, really!


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## Romix (Jan 11, 2017)

My technic processing them, first heat up, heat sink. Scrape up solder. MLCCs coming off with the blade too.
Then heat up silicon crystal. Cut of edges with gold foils. Middle with solder and crystals I processing separetly. Edges, have rubber for heat sink to sit on, it be good to remove this with something, maybe acetone not tried it yet. If not, there be lose in gold, tiny pieces stick to that rubber. 
Then wash off foils, filter out concentrate, keep washing until there is nothing dropping out, on addition of base. Wearing gloves, when washed completly it's safe to touch. What I do next is cutting edges in to a smaller squeres. And dissolving rest of copper in the holes with ammonia solution. Recomend me next steps? Burning off paint, or grinding them in blender, to dissolve rest of gold.


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## patnor1011 (Jan 11, 2017)

There is a reason why buyer pay smallest amount for them compared to other CPU's. The only gold on them is the one you see and sometimes bit of plating inside copper heat spreader. Any work on green part with already stripped contact pads is pointless exercise. 
The other bit of value is in capacitors in the middle. They are usually noble metal variety so Pd and Ag can be expected.


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## Romix (Jan 12, 2017)

patnor1011 said:


> There is a reason why buyer pay smallest amount for them compared to other CPU's. The only gold on them is the one you see and sometimes bit of plating inside copper heat spreader. Any work on green part with already stripped contact pads is pointless exercise.
> The other bit of value is in capacitors in the middle. They are usually noble metal variety so Pd and Ag can be expected.



No, it's not pointless. It will yield good per KG. Trust, pure gold there.

And where's Pd in MLCCs I went through alot of them, plates inside capacitor seems like nickel to me, magnetic. 
Is Pd alloyed with it? For bigger volume.


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## patnor1011 (Jan 12, 2017)

Pd is inside ceramic capacitors on top of CPU.
Sorry but "trust me" does not work here. :mrgreen: 
With your statement you are alone against whole industry. If there would be significant or at least measurable amount of gold inside them or under solder mask we all would know about that for quite a long time.
First argument against your theory is experience of quite a few members who tried that route and incinerated, milled, leached this type of CPU only to show no result worth to speak of.
Second more compelling argument is "follow the money". There are many hundred of companies who buy electronic scrap. This kind of CPU is of lowest value *. Nobody pay more than 9,50 euro for kilogram.** If there would be some gold inside information like this would got out already and someone would be offering much more than that.

There is no shortage of enthusiastic people who do believe there is gold in them or inside ceramic cpu's and we get quite a lot of them here too. To this date none of them succeeded. 

* with exception of Intel Core 2 Quad, Socket 775, Intel I5, I7, Socket 1155 - these being bought for 300 euro/kilogram under condition that they are without damage. Key word here is reuse rather than gold content.
** That is price from one buyer from germany. Most of other buyers pay 4-6euro/kilogram.


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## Grelko (Jan 12, 2017)

Romix said:


> Small fiber CPU's with heat sink, and circle foils on contacts instead of legs(pins).
> Maybe Dual core, can't remmember name.
> There's more gold in them other then circle foils.
> All the lines under green protective paint are gold too, hard to spot, but it is, really!



Like this type?



patnor1011 said:


> First argument against your theory is experience of quite a few members who tried that route and incinerated, milled, leached this type of CPU only to show no result worth to speak of.



Also, some of us still do it the old fashioned way, to see if there's any "hidden" gold.

I used a new blade and just barely scraped the green mask until it came off. Took about 3 minutes to expose the traces.


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## Romix (Jan 12, 2017)

Yes, this. 
Uderneath heat sink, lines. Hard to spot, in my cpus they are golden.


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## shmandi (Jan 12, 2017)

Could you post some photos (close up)?


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## Romix (Jan 12, 2017)

Really sorry, there ain't no gold. Yesterday I was breaking them under light. 
It shined like gold. 
Today in a day light, I see copper.


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## anachronism (Jan 12, 2017)

Glad you saw that Romix.

These aren't very good refining product, the gold yield is low compared to any other type of processor. Yes there is Pd in them however that's low too. 

Jon


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## Romix (Jan 12, 2017)

This small squeres, what left of CPU's after all copper dissolved. 
Are perfect to clean your reactor with, chack some in and shake with water. 
It will clean it, will look like new, with out scratches.


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 12, 2017)

Well one should do just a little research before scrapping CPU's.

The one in the photo is a Wolfdale CPU.

Look what this one sold for. 

You will NEVER recover that amount of gold or anything else combined. Ebay is your friend guys.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Pentium-Dual-Core-CPU-Wolfdale-E5400-2-70GHZ-2M-FSB800-LGA775-/172406039882?hash=item282433654a%3Ag%3AYvAAAOSwe7BW03tr&nma=true&si=DVcQRxs43ovyrJbODqkbC%252B8nf7A%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557


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## Grelko (Jan 12, 2017)

Romix said:


> Really sorry, there ain't no gold. Yesterday I was breaking them under light.
> It shined like gold.
> Today in a day light, I see copper.



That's what I thought at first. When it starting showing the traces through the green, it looked gold, but I put it under my microscope with a better light and it looks like copper.

The pictures I posted were through a jewelers loupe.

Edit -


silversaddle1 said:


> You will NEVER recover that amount of gold or anything else combined. Ebay is your friend guys.



That's a very nice jump in price when compared to what, about 2 cents worth of gold in it IF that much.

Maybe I should start selling things on ebay someday :lol:


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 12, 2017)

Not trying to school you, but it's always best to check before you scrap it.


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## Grelko (Jan 12, 2017)

silversaddle1 said:


> Not trying to school you, but it's always best to check before you scrap it.



Smaller things like CPUs etc, I have a little room for, but have no idea how ebay works. UPS is right up the road too. I'm guessing make an account, post items, sell, go to UPS, ship it out? Except I don't use Paypal.

I usually check most scrap items I get "or try to get them working again", but I don't have the room to keep much. Just like the working treadmill I tore apart yesterday  Hopefully this summer, I can have a bunch of yardsales. (I know a couple guys that will sometimes buy larger items off me, like a washer.)

I kept the treadmill motor, but have no idea what to do with it except take it to the scrapyard. 2HP 4700RPM 90V 10A DC PM. I thought maybe a grinder or ball mill. Anyone building a small 900w windmill?

Edit - nevermind about the windmill, the motor has brushes. No one would want to replace them every few months.


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## silversaddle1 (Jan 13, 2017)

E-bay is simple to use. And yes, you need a paypal account but don't worry about that, that's easy as well. You would not believe the junk I have sold on there, and not just e-scrap.


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## patnor1011 (Jan 13, 2017)

I do not think paypal is requirement for ebay. Most of German people I did business with required wire transfer and would not deal with me if I wanted to pay by paypal. 
Another thing is that wire transfer albeit slow will save considerable amount of money due to crazy paypal fees. I decided to ask for wire transfer when I sell anything worth 20-30euro or more.


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## Grelko (Jan 13, 2017)

silversaddle1 said:


> You would not believe the junk I have sold on there, and not just e-scrap.



Haha, I got bored one day and typed in "nothing" and yes, it was for sale. :lol: People actually bid on it too. Someone was selling an empty Gatorade bottle and broken Bic lighter.... people bid on that too. :roll:

The thing I don't like about it, is waiting to see "if" it'll sell. Especially if you piece it out. Lets say a Tv, it's not just a "tv for sale", it's the screen, all types of plastic, circuitboards, wires, speakers, etc. You can make a lot more selling items that way, but it might take months.

I like yardsales, if an item sells, it's gone and I'd have room for other items. If it didn't sell, it got taken apart and went to the scrapyard. I could do that with Ebay, but I'd need to rent storage space for the items "waiting" to be sold. Sometimes I'd fill the back of my truck a few times per week. I should be able to do that for smaller items like CPUs.



patnor1011 said:


> I do not think paypal is requirement for ebay. Most of German people I did business with required wire transfer and would not deal with me if I wanted to pay by paypal.
> Another thing is that wire transfer albeit slow will save considerable amount of money due to crazy paypal fees. I decided to ask for wire transfer when I sell anything worth 20-30euro or more.



I had so much trouble with paypal years ago, that I didn't really want to mess around with it again, but who knows.

I was thinking about money orders or wire transfer. Wire transfer would be easy, I'm pretty sure all I'd need to do is open a separate account at the bank, or maybe just a second debit card.

Actually, I do have a card for online purchase only, so I could have it deposited there.

How much slower is wire tranfer, a couple hours?

Edit - Paypal isn't required to buy things off Ebay, I just use a debit card. I think it goes through paypal somehow though.


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