# Refining Gold From Old Computers - Where Do I Start?



## kadriver (Sep 7, 2011)

I frequently come across old computers for less than $5 at the thrift store. I have even bought a couple.

I am clueless on where to start. I would like to recover the gold & silver (if any) from these old computers.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thank you - kadriver


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## jimdoc (Sep 7, 2011)

Those processors in your picture will disappoint you with the gold content.
I myself would just sell the motherboards and cards minus the gold fingers.
And keep all the ceramic processors until you build up a bunch.

You will find very little to no silver in computers, other than the keyboard mylars and some contacts. Its all here on the forum.

You can get an idea of what processors values are at http://thriftybits.com/ or http://boardsort.com/ 

Jim


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## silversaddle1 (Sep 7, 2011)

KAdriver,

No offense ment, but how could you ask such basic questions and have over 200 post here? :shock:


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## kadriver (Sep 7, 2011)

No offense - I just have never been interested in escrap until now.

I have looked at some of the posts from guys who are getting gold from this readily available source - I am ready to start looking at the processes.

I refine all my gold and silver from jewelry that my wife gets. But this has now become routine. i would like to start something new such as escrap.

I have a couple computers sitting in my shop right now. I can buy old computers for around $4 or $5 - I see them all the time at the thrift store.

I figured I might as well get started learning what to do to get the gold.

I know there is some on the cards and mother board.

I just don't know where to start.

Can I just put the gold fingers into AR and dissolve the gold off?

As you can see, I am clueless.

But rather than try something that is wrong, I am asking for help on this forum.

I can take all kinds of input - even negative. I sometimes find negative input of great value when I am learning.

kadriver


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## kadriver (Sep 7, 2011)

Thanks for stearing me to that web site Jim.


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## element47 (Sep 7, 2011)

Ka, first, I am not an expert, just a diligent lurker so far. (And I admire your gold and silver bars a lot!) But, as many posts as I have read from the more experienced e-refiners here, my impression is that all of them, to a man, state that the refined output yield from computers is not all that great, and they further state that the output from jewelry is far better. Certainly, to get any kind of meaningful gold from PCs, you need at minimum palletloads of them, certainly large boxes of motherboards. This leads me to believe that buying individual PCs for $4-$5 will yield very little after all is said and done. That is my impression. 

Coming at your query from another, more generic angle; I have lots of experience working with many people in many different kinds of businesses and I enjoy and value the insights I have developed over the years helping friends with their businesses, both paid and unpaid. My impression is that I have been able to help most of them. There are certain business paradigms. I have seen many dozens of friends of mine who were good in one business and thought they would do well in what seemed to be a related business. Many more oftentimes than not, they were proven wrong. I absolutely count myself in that batch. I encourage people to seek depth in the niche they are successful in rather than dabble elsewhere out of boredom or a quest for variety. That's my very brief opinion on the matter. You appear to have something going where you can buy jewelry and I take it profitably refine Au/Ag out of it. Fantastic. Now, I do not know what type of facility you work from. But do you imagine that some number of jewelry sellers would be discouraged from selling if they knew they were dealing with a SCRAP DEALER? Maybe I'm wrong. I just offer the thought.


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## Geo (Sep 7, 2011)

well for starters you should learn what has PM's and whats trash. visable gold is a good place to start your search. connector slots and fingers,pci slots and cable ends. theres the CPU and the slot it plugs into, then theres the flatpacks and any pci cards. all these things contain gold. if its an older model most of the icb's will have gold inside and even some of the newer ones too. processing the CPU's will yield some silver,palladium and a small amount of PT. palladium can be found in the MCC's as well as a small amount of silver. the older models have a fair amount of silver in the solder. theres more that i missed im sure, if someone thinks of something else follow up please.
btw, i forgot to mention that the price your paying is a good price to make a profit. the average pc has upwards of 2-3 pounds of copper if you include the cables. at todays prices if you just sold the copper, the PM's and aluminum and steel is pure profit, even if its only a dollar. :lol:


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## kadriver (Sep 7, 2011)

Thanks for all your comments.

It sounds like escrap may be a waste of my time.

Finding scrap gold & silver jewelry has been easy and very profitable for my wife & I. 

She (my wife) has told me "don't buy any more old computers until you know how to process the gold out of them".

I have learned over the 32 years I have been married to her to listen - she usually gives pretty sound advice.

I am still interested in looking into escrap as a way to get more gold.

I guess for some, escrap may be the only available source and that is why they have become so sucessful at it (escrap recovery).

Thank you - kadriver


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## jimdoc (Sep 8, 2011)

She is right about the buying computers part, now if you could find them for free that may be a different story. There is a lot of competition around my way, and a lot of them are offering $4-$5 for computers. That may be cutting down on my supply, but I won't be buying them. That would cut the profit margin down too much for the work involved.

If you can find them for free and save the fingers and processors, sell the boards, then you could add to your gold pile with some more gold that you saved from a landfill. 

Jim


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## kadriver (Sep 8, 2011)

I did not think of a land fill for escrap - I will check there tomorrow.

Maybe I can get them for free.

I could save the copper like you pointed out earlier, and chop off all the gold fingers from the cards and save until I have a 5 gal bucket full.

Thank you - kadriver


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## jimdoc (Sep 8, 2011)

kadriver said:


> I did not think of a land fill for escrap - I will check there tomorrow.
> Thank you - kadriver



I meant that when people just throw them in the trash they end up in the landfill with all their other trash. You want to try to get it before they do that. 

Also you may be able to process for other people that don't have the time or aren't set up for it, after you get the hang of it. Your bars do look very nice.

Jim


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## Smack (Sep 8, 2011)

Kadriver, I don't know if everywhere else is like it is in my state but once trash goes over the scale or through the gate at the landfill it can't come back out, not even by the people that work there. Not sure if it a law or not, just know that much because I have asked about it at a landfill.


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## Harold_V (Sep 8, 2011)

element47 said:


> Ka, first, I am not an expert, just a diligent lurker so far. (And I admire your gold and silver bars a lot!) But, as many posts as I have read from the more experienced e-refiners here, my impression is that all of them, to a man, state that the refined output yield from computers is not all that great, and they further state that the output from jewelry is far better. Certainly, to get any kind of meaningful gold from PCs, you need at minimum palletloads of them, certainly large boxes of motherboards. This leads me to believe that buying individual PCs for $4-$5 will yield very little after all is said and done. That is my impression.


And a good one it is. 
I spent over 20 years refining, and rarely processed e scrap. It's not very fruitful, especially when you can keep busy refining high grade wastes, which was my objective. 

I try to not discourage anyone from processing e scrap---but I also try to make it clear---it is difficult to have it become one's soul source of income. It's simply too labor intensive to be successful at the level of the home refiner. Great hobby, though!

Harold


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## silversaddle1 (Sep 8, 2011)

Well I would like to add that anyone can make a living on E-scrap, and even go as far as to say one could get rich at it. No, you are not going to get rich refining your gold from computers, but one must remember that the gold is just a fraction of the values in old computers. Volume is the key in this business. The more you can turn, the more you can make. So you have to look at it as a full time job. Everything in a computer can be recycled. Therefore, everything in a computer has value. Yes, save the memory, cpu's and fingers- E-bay is your friend on these. Clip all the gold bearing cable ends. The PCB's, copper wire, power supply, drives, steel, plastic, even the screws. It all has value. Find recyclers to sell your scrap to. Look around, don't take the first offer. Can't find a local buyer? Shop around in other cities. Stockpile if you have to, to make a roadtrip worthwile. Try not to focus too much on home owners and their junk computers. Get out there and hit the business scene. That's where you are going to make the money. Just about every business I have ever approched has had some sort of E-scrap they want to get rid of. Look professional. Don't show up with dirty, worn out garb and expect a business owner to give you anything. Have business cards. Even if you are just a DBA or sole proprietor. Service with a smile, and do what you say you will, when you said you would. It's out there boys and girls, just waiting for you! :lol: :lol:


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