# Best Process for Pentium Pro?



## crgoode (Apr 18, 2015)

I recently upon a few Pentium Pro's while disassembling an auction lot of towers. I have got a good grasp of refining foils over the past 2 years that I have been refining. Just looking for some advice as to which process would best the best way to process these as they have a different construction from most ceramic CPU's that I have worked with. I know I could sell them on ebay pretty quick but I would rather process them for the knowledge and experience I would get. Ive only got a few years of refining under my belt and I work on a smaller scale, so I will take any chance I can get to learn. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.


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## FrugalRefiner (Apr 18, 2015)

Please don't double post. I deleted your other post. As a reminder, the forum rules are posted in the Board Policy-------This should be read by everyone post.

Dave


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## crgoode (Apr 18, 2015)

I apologize. I realized that it would be a better questions for this board. I will be more diligent in the future.


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## FrugalRefiner (Apr 18, 2015)

No problem. For future information, you are able to delete your own post in a situation like this as long as no one else has posted after you. You can go back to the first post and you'll find an icon that allows you to delete it. Once someone else posts, you can no longer delete it yourself.

Dave


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## Anonymous (Apr 18, 2015)

Hi there

Which ceramics are you used to working with normally? I ask so that we can see how the construction may differ.


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## crgoode (Apr 19, 2015)

Thanks for the reply spaceships. Intel Pentiums mostly, the ones with the smooth ceramic back. I crack them with a hammer and soak them. There appears to be much more base metal on the pentium pro.


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## Anonymous (Apr 19, 2015)

Process these the same way. Crack the black from the bottom plate and get rid of it, break the ceramic up like you would do a normal Pentium and process in AR complete.

A lot of the gold is in the solder around the edge of that top heat spreader so don't even think about throwing it away 8) 8)

Edit: I'm assuming that you understand the need to ensure that you break them up enough to ensure that the internal silicon plate is damaged enough to ensure that the AR can get to the gold coating beneath it too. You don't want to miss that gold either. 

Hope that helps.

Jon


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## philddreamer (Apr 19, 2015)

CR, if you want to recover as much of the gold possible, spend some time removing the silicon chip with heat. If you don't, you can end up loosing some gold.

You should read here:
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=12845&hilit=pentium+pro&start=220

Take care!
Phil


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## Anonymous (Apr 19, 2015)

Good posts Phil. I also do believe that there is gold inside the ceramic in these. Your posts on that thread actually suggest that this is likely. 

I have heard that the only way to truly get all the gold from a Pentium Pro involves "dusting" the ceramic body. At which point the 0.35g yields would be but a fraction of the true result. I have kept all the ceramic bodies of every processor I have ever processed for future trials. 

Jon


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## crgoode (Apr 19, 2015)

Thank you guys for the info. It is very helpful. You wouldn't believe all the info that is out there on PP's but it's all around the subject of the yield controversy. 

Phil- That link was great! I am still getting used to navigating in general. This is the first time I have joined a forum, but I have been reading posts on here for about a year now and finally joined.

So, from my understanding the top plate is a Tungsten alloy. I have found conflicting reports on if AR will dissolve Tungsten or not. If it in fact does dissolve wouldn't it be best to keep it out of AR with the rest of the ceramics? I would be worried as to how it would effect my "drop" if it were in my AR.


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## acpeacemaker (Apr 19, 2015)

http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=8440

This might help a little with your question. No recommendation on Cn, just the info on what tungsten oxide can do to your solution. As for the lids search for info on stripping cells.


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## Anonymous (Apr 19, 2015)

It's fine to process the lot together in AR, don't worry about looking for stripping cells for these processors.


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## crgoode (Apr 20, 2015)

Thanks for the feed back.


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## patnor1011 (Apr 20, 2015)

spaceships said:


> Good posts Phil. I also do believe that there is gold inside the ceramic in these. Your posts on that thread actually suggest that this is likely.
> 
> I have heard that the only way to truly get all the gold from a Pentium Pro involves "dusting" the ceramic body. *At which point the 0.35g yields would be but a fraction of the true result.* I have kept all the ceramic bodies of every processor I have ever processed for future trials.
> 
> Jon



I am not attacking you in any way but please look at bold text and tell me what do you mean by that?
Things like "I have heard" are what ebay thrive on but as far as I remember quite a few people tried milling ppro and various ceramics and did not found it to be viable.


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## MrMylar (Apr 21, 2015)

The best way to process the Pentium Pro cpu's is to use AR. 

* First you must break the black glass underneath away from it. Remove as much as you can.

* Second, you should take a hammer and break the cpu into pieces. Normally when you break it in your hand with a hammer (WEARING GLOVES), I use welding gloves, you should get approximately 4 - 6 pieces.

* Third, put the pieces into AR and place it on the heat. While on the heat, regardless of the pins you see that have been dissolved, you should use a glass rod and stir the AR solution because you'll probably see the gold pins that have been shelled out floating around the solution. That means that your gold isn't all dissolved yet and you need to keep the heat going. Keep the heat on, and after using the stir rod to stir your solution and no gold floats to the top or swim around in the solution, you probably dissolved all the gold. 

Stirring is the key. You MUST stir every so often (every half hour or so), to make sure you've dissolved all the pins and (or) you've exhausted all the nitric acid.

Once you know you've dissolved all the pins, then all you need to do is filter the solution and then drop the gold with SMB.

Just so you will know, I have done Pentium Pro's before and I can tell you from my own experience that with 10 of those cpu's, the most gold you will yield is approximately 3g tops.

If you break the cpu's into at least 4 - 6 pieces, and you recover gold near the amount I mentioned that you may get from at least 10 of them, there will be no more gold to recover. I've recovered gold from them and afterwards I crushed up the solid pieces to a powder and put that powder in AR and after testing it, there was no more gold.

So, don't waste your time and effort trying to recover gold from those cpu's because they're thicker than probably any ceramic cpu you'll work with because once you recover the gold from breaking them up into pieces, that's all you're going to get. Again, I tried it just to see if others were telling me something correct and for me to learn. I did learn. There is no more gold after they've been broken up good and put into AR and processed. 

I didn't believe it, but, the AR WILL travel throughout the cpu and dissolve all the gold in there, regardless of how the wires are wired throughout the cpu. Break them up into 4 -6 pieces and there is no need to do any more breaking or even crushing afterwards. It's a waste of time.

Count the amount of Pentium Pro's you have and for every 10 you have, you should yield approximately 2.6g - 3g of gold. This is not exact, but this is an estimate I can rely on because of the other yields I've read about, and then my own experience processing them.

For your own experience and experiment, after you do the cpu's and you feel you've recovered all the gold there is in them, wash the cpu's very good with hot water and dish soap (I use Dawn)... let them dry out a few days or however you dry them and crush them up, and then put the crushed powder in some AR and process it. Although I'm saying you won't recover any more gold, you may very well recover some, plus you'll get the experience in doing so and knowing the yield data of those cpu's.


Hope that helps!


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## Anonymous (Apr 21, 2015)

patnor1011 said:


> I am not attacking you in any way but please look at bold text and tell me what do you mean by that?
> Things like "I have heard" are what ebay thrive on but as far as I remember quite a few people tried milling ppro and various ceramics and did not found it to be viable.



Hi Pat, don't worry I wouldn't not take it in any bad way. This is a reasoned discussion. 8) 

At least two of the other members have also alluded to additional gold yields by further breaking up the ceramics after the first AR process (Phil, and Barren) and I have experienced the same thing myself. Now this either points to an incomplete initial process or the exposing of additional gold which is then taken into the next AR solution. To be honest I am leaning towards the latter as the correct explanation because of the regularity with which it occurs. 

I have discussed a process at length with one of the long standing professional members that would ensure that the whole gold content of these processes is recovered but as of yet I have not had the time nor the equipment to do it. As such I have saved all my "processed" ceramics of every type along with the Pentium Pro ceramics. I would therefore have to state that whilst it appears likely that there is more gold in some (from my limited experience to date) ceramic "carcases" it is still not proven as a confirmed experiment. 

This is why I made my statement in the manner that I did, as postulating a theory as opposed to stating it as immutable fact mate. Does that answer your point- if not let me know and I will try to explain more. 

Regards

Jon

Edit for clarity of context.


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## shmandi (Apr 21, 2015)

I think it is not hard to find out if there is any gold in ceramics. Just break one and look for gold wires under microscope (loupe)


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## MarcoP (Apr 21, 2015)

As much is nice to hear there is more gold in them shouldn't we also take MrMylar experience into account? I don't mean to doubt other experienced members word, but could it be simply a specific model number that yields more? In this case everyone would be right.



MrMylar said:


> If you break the cpu's into at least 4 - 6 pieces, and you recover gold near the amount I mentioned that you may get from at least 10 of them, there will be no more gold to recover. I've recovered gold from them and afterwards I crushed up the solid pieces to a powder and put that powder in AR and after testing it, there was no more gold.


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## MrMylar (Apr 21, 2015)

MarcoP said:


> As much is nice to hear there is more gold in them shouldn't we also take MrMylar experience into account? I don't mean to doubt other experienced members word, but could it be simply a specific model number that yields more? In this case everyone would be right.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That is a good point. Some model no#'s and the year, manufacturing location and design may impact the amount a person would recover processing the same cpu. Some of the same cpu's will probably have more gold than others.


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## crgoode (Apr 22, 2015)

Thanks for all the info guys. I am still a little worried about precipitating with Tungsten in the solution. I have sifted through so much information on this and am still getting conflicting outcomes. I will give it a try and see what happens.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Apr 22, 2015)

crgoode said:


> Thanks for all the info guys. I am still a little worried about precipitating with Tungsten in the solution. I have sifted through so much information on this and am still getting conflicting outcomes. I will give it a try and see what happens.



Do a search on using copperas for doing your first drop of your gold, and then refine the recovered material again and use SMB for dropping your gold on the 2nd go round and you will be ok.


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## crgoode (May 14, 2015)

Thanks everyone for the input. I figured that, just for the heck of it, I would post the results:

After all was said and done, I got 0.74g of gold out of the first drop from two processors.

The tungsten that was present in the solution did not end up being an issue and was nothing that a little bit of HCL couldnt handle.

Thanks again everyone for your input


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