# Question about MMX CPU's



## firedan525 (Apr 30, 2007)

Today I was breaking open all my CPU's I'm going to process w/ AR. Now I am still new at this but I have done a really good job at elininating as much unwanted metal as I could. Pentiums, Cyrix's, all easy but when I started on the later pentium MMX stack I noticed when I got the alluminum cap of there is a ring of dark goldish color. I assume that is gold but is putting that big hunk of alluminum in the batch really worth it? Thanks alot. DAN


----------



## goldsilverpro (Apr 30, 2007)

Are you talking about real aqua regia, hydrochloric (muriatic) plus nitric? 

I don't know what Steve's experience is, but I definitely would keep aluminum out of the aqua regia. It consumes a lot of acid. It produces precipitates. Worst of all, due to it's position on the electromotive series, gold that has dissolved will plate back onto the aluminum. The other HCl mixtures are even worse when it comes to re-plating. 

You can strip gold off of aluminum in the sulfuric cell with no problems.


----------



## Harold_V (Apr 30, 2007)

If you find you have a considerable amount of aluminum in your metals, you might entertain the idea of a wash with HCL to eliminate it. It is likely to complicate filtration in later stages, so do your best to keep aluminum out of the cycle. It's always smart to do any kind of pretreatment that will eliminate unwanted metals when possible. 

Aluminum dissolves readily in HCL-----so be certain to introduce the acid slowly, along with some water. It liberates considerable hydrogen, so make certain you're well ventilated. 

Harold


----------



## lazersteve (Apr 30, 2007)

Dan,

The lid is not aluminum. It's nickel plated copper. You can pop them with a heat gun if you have the patience. Here's a tutorial on the subject:

http://goldrefining.110mb.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=200

Bermuda Dave even did it with a CANDLE!!! Now that's ingenuity!!!

My info comes from first hand experience with the cpus and backed by the manufacturers datasheet on the cpus.

Keep us posted.

Steve


----------



## firedan525 (Apr 30, 2007)

Again thanks alot to all.


----------



## toadiesop (May 1, 2007)

> be certain to introduce the acid slowly, along with some water. It liberates considerable hydrogen, so make certain you're well ventilated.



how is hydrogen bad? Fumes or explosiveness? both? 


here's the wiki: 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrog...
once again.... great job forum!!!
[/img]


----------



## Harold_V (May 1, 2007)

toadiesop said:


> how is hydrogen bad? Fumes or explosiveness? both?



My concern is strictly the danger of explosion. I had a couple hydrogen flashes when I refined. They get your attention in a hurry. 

I did everything in a fume hood, so I had no risk of fumes accumulating, but a couple times my stock pot, which was always in or near the hood, was producing hydrogen at a serious rate, and it ignited from the burners in the hood. No problem, but had they been free in the room, that could have been a whole different story. 

Just be careful any time you have gasses coming off of these processes. Some may be deadly. (Hydrogen sulfide, for example).

Harold


----------

