# How much are these CPUs really worth?



## cheapmanuals (Jun 6, 2008)

I have a chance to get some of these at a sweet price.
[img:400:327]http://i13.ebayimg.com/04/i/000/f4/a0/39f3_1.JPG[/img]
Do they have a good amount of gold?


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## Rag and Bone (Jun 6, 2008)

Figure 1/3g per cpu. Ive got 101 in AP at the moment. It looks pretty cool when the whole top strips off and floats around.


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## Scott2357 (Jun 6, 2008)

My guesstimation is .33 to .5 gram each but still trying to nail down numbers to expect before I process.


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## Oz (Jun 6, 2008)

Are you guys counting just pins and lids, or crushing ceramic and leaching it as well in you numbers?


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## Rag and Bone (Jun 6, 2008)

I smack them with a hammer. The benefit of leaching the crushed ceramic does not outweigh the mess it creates, in my estimation. I'm saving the stripped ceramics until there is enough weight to make it worth while.


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## Scott2357 (Jun 6, 2008)

I think maybe process method and efficiency might account for the variation in yield. .33 gm being just an acid bath strip with some losses in processing while .5 gm the crush/leach method with much tighter final process control.

Just some numbers I came up with based on reports here and other sources. I have about 30-40 of these... will let everyone know when I get time to process.


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## cheapmanuals (Jun 6, 2008)

Awesome!!
Thanks for all the great responses!!!


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## pinwheel (Nov 7, 2008)

ok so correct me if I am wrong.

If a gram of gold is today $26.50 and each chip contains at least .3g au. That is $7.08 per processor.

There are about 20 processors to the pound roughly speaking which means they would yield $141.60 per pound.

They sell for $15/lb on ebay.

So if this is all roughly correct, can anyone tell me why it is not profitable to do it yourself?

The math is screaming at me to recover these myself, rather than sell them off on ebay.

Is there a pot of gold at the end of this tunnel?


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## viacin (Nov 7, 2008)

just for the record, what processor is this? The image is gone.


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## agpodt77339 (Nov 7, 2008)

I think the picture was of a pentium pro. These are very large CPUs, and it would take a lot less than 20 to get a pound(Probably 2 or 3). The price that they sell for on ebay is almost always very close to the value of the gold in the items, and sometimes it even goes over.


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## viacin (Nov 8, 2008)

It had been said by many members of the forum that the Pentium Pro has roughly $7 worth of gold in each one. This is a confusing statment, since gold prices per gram vary daily. But .3g per cpu is a much better analog. I'm not saying that it right, just that it is the best way to explain how much a cpu is worth.


Here it is btw, for the new refiner who has never seen one. It could easily be called the Holy Grail of cpu recovery.

[img:399:268]http://www.microprocessor.sscc.ru/chiplist/ppro-1.jpg[/img]


And no, 99 times out of 100, all gold scrap on ebay will go for something at or above spot. Trust me, I've been watching it daily.


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## Scott2357 (Dec 6, 2008)

It takes about 5 to get a pound.


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## SapunovDmitry (Dec 7, 2008)

Yeah, these are great CPUs. Unfortunately now it is harder and harder to find them. They are so great, that i even spared one and put it on the shelf above my bed 8) .


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## pinwheel (Dec 7, 2008)

so how much gold is in a pentium 1- 4 chip? I have a couple of these pentium pro chips. They are very nice, but I encounter the smaller chips all the time. I have been selling them on ebay and have been getting roughly $15/lb.

I imaging there is more than 2 grams in 20 regular chips, but maybe not?


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## Anonymous (Mar 2, 2009)

That is a big secret on tis forum. :roll: 

I found data from 0.33 gramm to 5 gramm per CPU.


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## jamthe3 (Mar 2, 2009)

WOW, 5 gr per huh? :roll: I'd check the source.


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## patnor1011 (Mar 2, 2009)

There is *no* secret on this forum... Reported yields varies becouse of different processes chosen for refining them, experience and effort which you are putting in... Also only few people here have couple hundred pieces of one type and year cpu as most of us have different types, manufacturers, colours, shape, odour and so on mixed together... You can have celeron 1.3 and 1.4 and they are not that same... Too many types to have some concrete details of yields...


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## goldsilverpro (Mar 2, 2009)

dejan,



> That is a big secret on tis forum. Rolling Eyes
> 
> I found data from 0.33 gramm to 5 gramm per CPU.


You're asking for a single answer to a question that can have multiple answers. And, although most of the data on this forum is correct, some is not. Depends on the person providing the information. Don't highgrade your mind and just pick out the highest number. The only way to really know the gold content is to first gain some knowledge and then process them yourself.

*Identical looking parts can vary in gold content!*

The CPUs are chips (ICs) that are encased inside of a "package." Actually, all types of ICs are encased in a package. The package's purpose is to protect the chip and to enable it to be plugged into a connector. Intel and AMD make the chips and buy the packages from companies like Kyocera and many others. 

The packages contain a large proportion of the gold in the assembled part. In some cases, it accounts for all of it. The gold content of the various packages on the market will vary.

Packages are plated on a plating rack, in a rectangular array of maybe 100 parts on a side. The parts on the sides can possibly draw twice as much total current and can, therefore, have as much as double the amount of gold. If you run only 4 or 5 parts, it's possible to over-evaluate the material. The bigger the sample, the more accurate the evaluation.

When companies make the same part for a period of time, they continually improve it. They also try to cut costs. One way is to reduce the gold content.


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## Scott2357 (Mar 3, 2009)

Here's a closeup I took of one of my Pentium Pro chips. Just look at all that gold!  8)


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## butcher (Mar 3, 2009)

looks can be decieving, seems like it always looks like more.


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## Anonymous (Mar 4, 2009)

The chips from the 70's contained 10 gramms of gold per chip, back then the gold was not so expensive like today.


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## goldsilverpro (Mar 4, 2009)

> The chips from the 70's contained 10 gramms of gold per chip, back then the gold was not so expensive like today.



I've never seen any 70s chips that ran even close to 10 grams each and I started in the 60s. Can you give me an example?

Even though the gold price was lower, people weren't stupid back then. The gold thickness then was basically the same as it is today. Nobody puts more gold on a part (and never has) than what is necessary. From day 1, they have always tried to reduce the amount of gold. Gold has never been cheap. Today, however, the parts are designed so that there is less gold plated surface area. Also, on less critical parts, non-gold brazes are used.

Technology has reduced the amount of gold on parts. The higher price does motivate research in this direction but, they have never put on extra gold.


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## koebeef (Mar 19, 2009)

How does one remove the gold plating (if it is gold plating) on the other side of the chip, where it is stamped pentium pro.


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## Anonymous (Mar 31, 2009)

Hey got info that a pen pro has 1g per/////see att

sex is better then Gold


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## lazersteve (Mar 31, 2009)

gold1961 said:


> For my Borther's injoy cost me few $$$$



Are you saying you paid for the information in the attachment?

You can download it for free from my website:

http://www.goldrecovery.us

If you paid for it what did you pay? 


Steve


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## Harvester3 (Apr 1, 2009)

Hey,
In the Forum Handbook there is a bucket of lids and a caption which reads "22lbs. = 22oz. " is this data dependent on the model of cpu the lid originated from, or any gold lid? 
Thanks


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 1, 2009)

I have run a lot of package lids from old CPUs using the electrolytic sulfuric cell (although modified). Completely gold plated lids with a Au/Sn solder preform attached around the perimeter of one side typically ran 1 tr.oz. of gold per pound of lids. This is for new unused lids. For lids that have been removed from sealed packages, the numbers will be less, since part of the solder will be attached to the seal ring on the package.


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## Harvester3 (Apr 1, 2009)

thanks for the info. Out of curiosity, where do you come by unused lids?
Also, if one were talking about CPUs such as the Pentium pro which has plated top as well, what percentage of total AU is the bottom lid would you think?
Thanks


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 2, 2009)

Most all of the material I refined was rejects from electronics manufacturers. One time, e.g., we got 1100# of unused lids.


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## Harvester3 (Apr 2, 2009)

Sweet! I just did the math in my head. Really sweet!


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