# Motherboards' silver content



## SapunovDmitry (Mar 23, 2008)

Guys, can anyone tell the average content of silver on the motherboeard and a TVboard? Maybe some experience you had dealing with TV boards?


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## calgoldrecyclers (Apr 2, 2008)

the average content of precious metals for a 70 lb. home computer is about .67% or just over 3 ounces. this includes keyboard and monitor.
for the board convert that from 30% by weight. 

as far as t.v. boards, they will contain poly chlorinated biphenyl capicitors (PCB's) and very harmful to your health. stay away from them. PCB is a very toxic oil used in the capacitors to keep them cool.


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## SapunovDmitry (Apr 6, 2008)

Well.... today i've used AR,urea and SMB method for my 2 old motherboards( i've cut all gold containing parts(thanks to Steve.He used a fan and so did i,but for pins,not for CPU). I didn't touch CPU's, so it was only the stuff from motherboards (Lan ,USB , sound, PCI, hard drives and memory slots on the motherboard). The whole scrap i've got, weighted 46,2 gramms. Afterall i got powder, that weighted something between 0,1 and 0,2 gramms (I can't say more precise cause i haven't got good scales at home.I will weight it tomorrow in the lab). Taking the best result of 0,2 gramms and dividing it by 46,5 we have about 0,43%. Maybe i can get 0,1-0,3 gramms more from CPU's. But it was a result from two motherboards. It doesn't look like three ounces(Maybe i've lost almost everything?) even if i get 10 times more silver than gold. Or all silver is in the monitor and the keyboard?


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## pilotdan (Apr 6, 2008)

SapunovDmitry said:


> Well.... today i've used AR,urea and SMB method for my 2 old motherboards( i've cut all gold containing parts(thanks to Steve.He used a fan and so did i,but for pins,not for CPU). I didn't touch CPU's, so it was only the stuff from motherboards (Lan ,USB , sound, PCI, hard drives and memory slots on the motherboard). The whole scrap i've got, weighted 46,2 gramms. Afterall i got powder, that weighted something between 0,1 and 0,2 gramms (I can't say more precise cause i haven't got good scales at home.I will weight it tomorrow in the lab). Taking the best result of 0,2 gramms and dividing it by 46,5 we have about 0,43%. Maybe i can get 0,1-0,3 gramms more from CPU's. But it was a result from two motherboards. It doesn't look like three ounces(Maybe i've lost almost everything?) even if i get 10 times more silver than gold. Or all silver is in the monitor and the keyboard?




Zdravstvujte SapunovDmitry, 

I don't think you will get anywhere near that with just two motherboards and other cards that you listed. Some of the more senior members on here may know better. 

If you watch Steve's videos and follow his process of the fingers, it takes a lot to get a few grams. 

Hope that helps. It sounds like you got out what you should have. 

Dan 

PS. Your English it really good.


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## Rag and Bone (Apr 6, 2008)

"the average content of precious metals for a 70 lb. home computer is about .67% or just over 3 ounces. this includes keyboard and monitor. 
for the board convert that from 30% by weight."

I question these figures. They seem way too high. I would be surprised if there was 3 grams of PMs in a PC/monitor/keyboard, much less 3 oz. 

Where is the silver located on a motherboard?


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## SapunovDmitry (Apr 6, 2008)

The only thing i know about the silver content is that it can be in solder and in flatpacks...
I would be very thankfull if someone could teach me to estimate the silver content. 
P.S. to Dan. Thanks, i started learning it when i was four years old. Guys( kind of students) from Utah and California teached us until we were 16-17 y.o. It was an exchange program.


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## calgoldrecyclers (Apr 7, 2008)

i agree. the content seems way too high to be factual. this information of precious metal content was from a june 1999 article in byte magazine. ( a handy and harman electronic materials corporation article) that cant be the correct reclamation. .67 percent was for an other content. IE: other than plastic, steel, glass, etc. i believe silver is found in the tin/ silver solder as well as the traces. 
from a magazine article- " PCB's on average, contain 30% by weight recoverable metals, gold, silver, tin, aluminum, copper, lead."

this from a by content experiment:
486 pc- Au=0.15 oz., Ag=.066 oz., Pd=.007 oz.
586 microprocessor- Au= .006 oz., Ag= .009 oz., Pd=.000 oz.
cell phone- Au=.001 oz., Ag= .004 oz,. Pd=.0009 oz.
external modem- Au=.002 oz., Ag= .014 oz., Pd= .0009 oz.


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## SapunovDmitry (Apr 8, 2008)

Are u sure that it is 0,15 not 0,015 for Au in 486? I would belive in it.
Btw. Thank you very much for the data.It will really help.


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## Noxx (Apr 8, 2008)

Ahha 0,15... that would be 135$ per CPU 

But even 0,015oz seems high for me for a 486.


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## SapunovDmitry (Apr 8, 2008)

Yeah, a bit high, but it's ok, cause silver and Pd values are quite resasonable. After all, we all know the Au value of 486, but not everyone knows about the amount of Ag and Pd .


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## Scott2357 (Apr 8, 2008)

I thought gold in a 486 was about .15 _*grams*_ each.


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## Noxx (Apr 8, 2008)

ya, that's more resonable


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## SapunovDmitry (Apr 8, 2008)

Yeah,without CPU of course.


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## calgoldrecyclers (Apr 8, 2008)

I believe that .15 was for the whole computer. in 1990 or whenever the computer was manufactured was alot less than $135. but, then again, computers were in the thousand dollars plus range back then.


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## SapunovDmitry (Apr 9, 2008)

Nope, i am really thankful for your data, but there is a document on the forum that i liked almost as much as Steve's cell videos. It's name is goldrecovery1. 1,5 minutes ago i occasionally found it again, and it says that pound of 486 (20 of them) yields 3-3,5 gramms of Au. Somewhy i belive it...
I just think that CPU yields most in computer.

Thanks again for silver and Pd contents.


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## peter i (Apr 9, 2008)

A link, please?


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## SapunovDmitry (Apr 9, 2008)

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=912


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## Anonymous (Aug 18, 2009)

calgoldrecyclers said:


> as far as t.v. boards, they will contain poly chlorinated biphenyl capicitors (PCB's) and very harmful to your health. stay away from them. PCB is a very toxic oil used in the capacitors to keep them cool.



Could U point out exactly, what capacitor types contain poly chlorinated biphenyl? As far as I know, PCB was prohibited in 1975.
Regards


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## patnor1011 (Aug 18, 2009)

few very old pcb and link to page about them.
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/EHSRM/HAZEXCEPTIONS/cap.html


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## Anonymous (Aug 19, 2009)

patnor1011 said:


> few very old pcb and link to page about them.



Thank U for the link, Patnor.

They produced more than 1.5 million tons of this damned PCB stuff only. Nearly a pound for every human being on this lousy planet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlorinated_biphenyl

Regards,
Allard


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## Geld Konig (Jul 2, 2010)

In board before "80, there are silver in the following itens: 
Ta capacitors
Mica capacitors
Diodes
Resistors special that 1%
Memory special in Si chip ( a paste with epoxi) ( Ag or Au (older))
All IC tracks
In part of slots
IC connectors
In clocks ( Ag , Au)
In holes in the board tracks
In special boards, silver plated under Rh.


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## Anonymous (Jul 2, 2010)

my entire computer with monitor weights 12.5 lb.

maybe thats the diff, not sure they make 70lb pcs anymore.

Jim


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