Pentium Pro Computer Scrap

[@Dan-zc7ut]

I’m a 15 year old who literally has no relation to this field of work, this is really interesting and I easily stay up at 2 in the morning watching the full video

[@unh0lyav3ng3r8]

also have no interest in smelting or refining.. uk!

[@scrappydoo7887]

Its always good to appreciate someone excelling in their craft 👍

[@1RebelDog1]

you will find A LOT of good content here, very interesting channel, hello from WALES!

[@Dan-zc7ut]

@@1RebelDog1 another Brit! Nice one mate 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇯🇪🇬🇧

[@aredditor4272]

You're so young, maybe this will stir an interest in chemistry, and motivate you to take it to a high level.

[@dave_in_florida]

One of the best parts about your videos is how clearly you speak and how you produce such quality sound, I really appreciate that you have a microphone headset.

[@andyjay6947]

I don't think I would ever do this but I find your videos very therapeutic

[@randyscorner9434]

I admit to being emotionally attached to those chips you're so cavalierly breaking up. I was the design manager for the Pentium Pro processor and it's follow-ons. There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that went into making these devices. Figuring out how to put two die in one package economically while maintaining a high speed bus connection was hard.....But, technology moves and what we invented then continues in other processors today. Still hard to watch these being broken up for the elements....:)

[@sreetips]

Thank you for your contribution to computer science.

[@Rane358]

😢😳🤣

[@JCortez98]

Damn lol

[@BornInOz]

Hi Randy! :)

[@jamesstfelix2408]

Cheep chips.

[@mainwarings3]

gratitude for your channel sreetips, you've kept many of us going through the lockdown

[@roricmoon9273]

I’ve been following you for awhile sreetips, I am an electrical mechanical engineer and we build generator for locomotives. Ever since I saw your refinement of brazing rods I have kept all my scraps nibs they range from 15% to 50% silver. I have pounds of the scraps I would like to refine soon. I was wondering if you could do a video on some of your lab materials. Such as where to purchase the acids, glassware* I have a bunch*, crucibles, safety equipment and PPE, and other vital materials. I am in the process of setting up my fume hood right now. I think this info could be beneficial for the new hobbyist. Your followers understand that you’re a busy man with all the work and content you provide for us and we thank you. Keep up the great work.

[@silverismoney]

I've watched at least a dozen videos on this topic and yours was 100% the best one with clean clear instructions. I'm still not sure If I'm going to bother doing it but it sure was fun to watch.

[@BobbyJHeupel]

Glad you found your old buddy and REALLY glad you uploaded a new content video!

[@Khodazmoon]

Dear sreetips You work really hard on this channel and I appreciate your efforts. you are publishing videos almost every day I've learned a lot from you I wish you the best in your life

[@scrapman502]

Not all pentium pro cpu's contain the same amount of gold. You need to check the Cache level on them when you buy them. the 512K cache contain more gold than the 256K cpu's You also might want to re-check the ceramic pieces before you discard them. There is usually gold brazing UNDER the silicon Die, if you don't break them up enough, there might be trapped gold under the die

[@ohranjegallante1203]

I was windering why not get a crusher and crush it all up?

[@bigtxbullion]

Dang thats interesting. Would have never thought cache would have anything to do with the PM content. Amazing how much money we used to spend on these "latest" processors vs the scrap value now. Talk about a depreciating asset.

[@scrapman502]

@@bigtxbullion Well, The larger cache has larger/ more Ic's in the cpu, hence more Bond wires to connect them.

[@buckwildebeest398]

I was thinking a grinder/powerizer would be cool. Help to get everything exposed. Create more surface area. He could do it with the silver-gold alloy also. (Electrum? Or is that only 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 occuring?) It looks like delicious, clumpy brown sugar if he doesn't, though.

[@phillycheesetake]

Please stop encouraging people to destroy vintage CPUs. A quick check on ebay will demonstrate that it is completely uneconomical, and simply an exercise in wanton destruction.

[@williammiller7362]

I believe you are missing some gold under those caps. Remove the caps/lids on the cpu's before you smash them. There is gold brazing underneath the caps. Back Yard Scrapper just did a video a couple of months ago on these cpu's, and showed this step. I really enjoy your videos and you are a great teacher.

[@tjfultz3818]

Have watched several of your videos and really appreciate the detail and explanations of the chemistry involved. My background is more in the organic field, so I recognize that there a many other subtleties that aren't covered in depth. I do want to emphasize, for example, that a good fume hood and other protections are critical so that people remain safe. And while I love how your camera work that allows us to see the in-process pours and collection, the viewers should be cautioned that pouring acids or any strong chemicals toward the body can be very dangerous and is being done to show the work. Your videos are very interesting and helpful to me.

[@loganjenkins5597]

Much better on the narration for pc volume. Great job, always look forward to the videos!

[@ArielleViking]

A fascinating one to watch. Popped up on my recommendation list, couldn’t miss a treat like this. 👍🏻

[@sreetips]

Thank you!

[@no1bandfan]

On modern CPU’s, the solder between the die and the heat spreader has indium and silver in it to have a better thermal conductivity than lead.

[@Go4TheGold369]

Thank you for your service, it’s a good past time for Vets!

[@Jrny32]

Thanks again for another video. I'm happy to see some lead sulfate, and I still think it would be awesome to see a heavily saturated solution of it precipitate in another video

[@Y2KNW]

Just think of the thousands of hours of DOOM, Duke Nukem II, X_COM, and Warcraft I those chips may have seen. Godspeed, little ones.

[@paulmac7667]

Guffaw!

[@scrappydoo7887]

Ahh Duke nukem... Those were the days

[@sreetips]

We had two pentium PCs networked together and played hours of DOOM

[@jz9189]

Love your videos sreetips! Always fascinated to see what your next video will be! Keep them up brother🤘

[@Reasonist]

Yield is low when you compare to what Sree works with day in and out, but compared to any other ‘waste’ material in the world that’s an amazing return. Your yield was spot on for the chip type. Your amount of pre-processing required compared to all other non-ceramic CPU’s is what makes that recovery rate so good, cause all you had to do was smash and add acid, which cannot be said for the other forms of e/waste material. Huge savings in time.

[@scrappydoo7887]

I don't think I have seen you using AP very often 👍 its my main process so thank you 👍 Edit, im absolutely amazed by the tiny amount from those, i had been lead to believe they are far better in term of return.

[@jasong8377]

That's because the people selling them are the one putting all the Phony information and exaggerated yields out there

[@scrappydoo7887]

@@jasong8377 agreed

[@adenilsonsouzaaguiar5981]

Tudo bem , sou purificador de metais também . Muito bom seus videos , que Deus lhe abençoe. Sou do Brasil.

[@jaspcardoso8]

Nice man! I was long hoping to see another video with ewaste, good job!

[@H3110NU]

I had a small bag of these back in the day with 4 or 5 from friends and mine computers...

[@shaneyork300]

I've not yet started to refine my gold yet. I know Ewaste is alot lower yield than karat but that is the majority of what I've been hoarding for many years, and I have collected alot over that time! I'm looking forward to seeing the yield. My expectations are very realistic though! I love it when you do the Ewaste video as I'm sure many others are as well. Have a Great Day My Friend!!!

[@judgetk8327]

Like you said, that's a lot of work and expense for such a small reward. Great video. Thank you.

[@donaldparlettjr3295]

I'm surprised you don't use a filter pouring off the rinse water then burn off the filter at the end as usual. Get all the gold and forget the drain waste. Great to see you found your shipmate. Fair winds and following sea.

[@ProfaneGod]

CPU's like the pentium pro are held in with a clip and do not come into contact with any solder but it is still the best practice to add sulfuric acid.

[@jasong8377]

the pins are soldered on then gold plated and the bottom caps covering chips are also

[@aredditor4272]

As sreetips has figured out, the plating process in electronics doesn't involve pure gold, it's a process in steps involving other metals. Some volume processors melt all the metals and pour them into the shape of cathodes. The gold ends up in slimes at the bottom of a tank.

[@chosen1one930]

Its really is best to just remove the soldered caps with heat than remove the silicon die with heat as well. The ceramic remains intact but the acid can hit every spot were gold inlay, brazing etc hides under the dies but it can be done anyway one wants to do

[@ladykidnickels8392]

Definitely know better than to attempt that, lol. Sound was good with the sound change, maybe a touch low. 👍 Thank you sir for teaching me this valuable lesson. #teamSHTF

[@seanbrummett3288]

ol' Sreetips!!! Great video as always! Quick question that you vets might make in a video or perhaps just write back.. In the final steps of adding stump out and borax: The amount of stump out to use in reference to the stock? If two much is added best recommendation to fix the mess. Same thing with borax, amount used and a fix if too much is added. Thank you Sreetips and Archimedes Channel for your educational videos

[@ProspectorTripp]

Audio good sir.. great voice helps! The amount of gold, not so much. I get about .3g gold / pentium pro? I do crush into a zillion bits.. in my mill before removing base metals. I’ve been in the electronics industry all my life, now retired. I enjoy reverse prospecting electronics 🧐 I am preparing some Pentium CPU’s 1992, 1993 (expected yield .12g/cpu) and will do at least one experiment before processing the entire batch. 64 total CPU’s Simple break up of CPU’s VS Milled to Powder. Thanks Sreetips! ✌️PT

[@bgexy5457]

Mic sounds way better. Old set up was quite jarring when you switched. Love the vids keep it up.

[@waynoswaynos]

There is a process I read for making monatomic gold that uses HCl and H2O2 to dissolve it. That form of gold has some pretty unusual properties . One of which is evading detection with regular methods including mass spectroscopy. What if some of the gold was lost in the very beginning?

[@RoeMantic]

Damn hope eWaste Ben don't see this hahaha. Go for the gold man!

[@scrappydoo7887]

Hello Roe 👋

[@jasong8377]

He just did a updated chip returns video and his numbers are way off It kinda pissed me off because as a hobby Scrapper refiner he put Exaggerated dollar signs in sellars heads

[@scrappydoo7887]

@@jasong8377 yea i just said similar

[@chosen1one930]

Ewaste ben is a joke who makes clickbait most of the time, he hasnt refined the first gram of anything. Hes only a scrapper who dreams up fake yields for the views and noobs believe it.

[@chosen1one930]

@@jasong8377 Very true, Ben is a joke. He hasnt refined anything and never will but he will keep on making fake yield data like its real. This was interesting I didnt listen to the video or why the yields were lower than the average .3 per pentium pro that sreetips usually got back in the day. .3 to .35 with ball milling etc is about the best you will get. Did you like how ben even showed off the wrong cpus when he did that video, bad enough the yields were wrong he couldnt even have the right model to go with it.

[@MikkellTheImmortal]

Good video on why e waste is a bad investment for the home refiner. The pc mic volume sounds so much more clear than before, I think you should stick with the volume you set it at

[@patricksimons560]

i still have some Pentium Pro's but always thought they had more gold then this. Will not break them up.

[@johnwald1714]

There is gold bondwires connecting the pins to the cpu throughout the whole ceramic case. They yield a total of 0 .250g of 24k per unit. Which is the highest gold content of any cpu ever mass produced. Pulverize, roast, leach base metal then AR extraction.

[@OwlTech333]

The yield confirms that AP is not the weapon of choice when it comes to gold recovery from CPUs. How about the silicone dies? Are they still attached to the ceramics? If they are there's alot of gold underneath. The silver in the braze is blocking the AP

[@scrappydoo7887]

Thats very useful information Owl 🦉 thank you 👍

[@scrappydoo7887]

Just out of curiosity, would the aqua regia not fix that issue?

[@sreetips]

AP is the way to go. The low yield was due to my sloppy and impatient technique.

[@scrappydoo7887]

@@sreetips thank you 👍 🙂

[@OwlTech333]

​@@scrappydoo7887 to some extent after prolonged boiling

[@bobspistolsandpaydirt8607]

Love your refining videos...... another great one! Thanks from North. Texas....

[@Jake-tw8qr]

If ANYONE gives you any shade for smashing up some old processors, Mr Sreetips just send the my way.

[@bbppbb11]

I bought like 40 of these pentiums and a bunch of military grade pins, glassware, melt dishes, smb, B.funnel, filters etc etc. 9 or so years ago when I started watching Indeeditdoes. Only thing holding me back was a fume hood. Maybe I could setup an outside unit like yours to start learning again! One day ima get that gold out lol. Great vid as always!

[@Laser2120]

If your doing it for the science great. If your just after the gold you might want to check the prices of the chips you have and just sell them, then buy some gold you will get more plus less hassle haha.

[@bbppbb11]

@@Laser2120 Great advice.... But i kinda like the science! lol

[@jakestarr4718]

I agree, the chemistry is fun to observe and it's exciting to succeed at it. 9 years ago, might make a profit. I did the same but stopped trying to use tons of acids and just melt pretty much anything I can if ceramic is involved. Cheaper to just burn out the metals and pour shot to hammer and roll thin, then acids. I found myself no matter what, always ending up with gold still inside the ceramic. I disliked the time grinding up ceramic by hand in cast iron crucible.

[@edparker9837]

From one veteran to another, thank you for your service! I have been watching most of your videos and learning how to refine precious metals. Nitric is too expensive and I'm not brave enough to try to make it myself (yet). The question I have with this method is: What is the temp outside? I was thinking about doing this with some CPUs and fingers from a collection I have and wonder if the cold weather (30F/-1C) slows down the process?

[@turtle1897]

CPUs especially on Ebay people are wanting more $ than the yields more and more. I have heard that the older rear projection TVs are some of the best yields but they come with a large amount of useless product also but they are easy to find for free on Facebook Marketplace & Craigslist. As always another great vid and you always make me miss our towns Ace Hardware that went out of business few years ago

[@cracklingice]

One of these days I'm going to have to pick up one of these Pentium Pros for my collection before they're all scrapped. lol

[@keithdesjardine4974]

Why collect cpus?

[@cracklingice]

@@keithdesjardine4974 There aren't things you like? I'm big into computers. Have been since the days of the original pentium.

[@robertvesely667]

educational as always thanks for all of the work you do

[@julianmarsh7993]

People freak out when you dissolve these, they even used to be on TV adverts.

[@blacklabelonthebedrocks]

Sreetips classics/best of? I think, I had a dejavu.

[@hschultz123]

Perhaps if you had a grinder you could recover more gold. I think there is gold embedded in the ceramic that was not exposed to the aqua regia

[@wisconsingoldrush8270]

Always nice to see the sweet little bead at the end

[@erik61801]

Legend has it those had the most gold in them of all CPUs

[@Reasonist]

The leftovers in the filter might be palladium, from the gold plated capacitors on the top of the CPU’s 🧐

[@andrejohnson6731]

If you are emotionally attached to Pentium Pro chips, it’s time to reevaluate your priorities.

[@ProspectorTripp]

Funny dude!

[@scrappydoo7887]

Agreed

[@TheRealGrinch313]

A couple of months ago I heard of someone buying a laptop computer at a thrift store and they found an envelope in the case with $1,900 cash. I believe it. You never know what you might find while thrifting.

[@sreetips]

My wife found a small gold pendant. The gold had no marking but she can spot gold by eye since she’s been doing it so long. The folks at the thrift store thought it was costume since it wasn’t marked and presumed that the stone was a CZ. She bought it for the gold for $2.99 and it turned out to be a nearly flawless one carat diamond.

[@TheRealGrinch313]

@@sreetips I have found gold with free mason stamps they stopped using in 1912. I found a 4 gram 14kt charm last month at a swap meet for $1. It had no markings whatsoever. And I may have found a rare 1878 one dollar gold coin at a thrift store in needles CA last week and was told I could have it, because I bought a bunch of other stuff, including a 7.5 gram 10kt bracelet for $20. Picked off a 1.25 gram 14kt gold ring and an 7.5 gram 18kt white gold with 6 15+ point diamonds 2 weeks ago. Paid $5 each. Lol I'm building a pile of gold filled, and high grade electroplated gold costume jewelry too.

[@eriklittge9911]

Gold binds to carbon easily. Fine particulates that concrete with the carbon are inductive and reflect no light. Ergo black residue in filter.

[@23bailey]

New Valentine's Day card idea: I love you like Sreetips loves precious metals

[@whitebuffalo84]

Shipmate was wondering if you used a magnetic stir stick in the bottom of the beaker on a magnetic stir table. Does this work instead of using air bubbler

[@johannesdesloper8434]

I checked a couple of vids on these types of CPU's they definately contain Silver so lots of the white stuff will probably be SilverChloride

[@CamelGarage]

Hey! Looks like you made my request come true to see the lead precipitate. Cool stuff!

[@CamelGarage]

Pc mic level is perfect!

[@garyammerman2153]

Good sound quality Kevin!

[@josephpecoul6532]

I always appreciate your time sir thanks for the video Sreetips

[@ProspectorTripp]

And there you are Joseph! ✌️PT

[@josephpecoul6532]

@@ProspectorTripp and there we are PT.ha.

[@ourodolixo-e]

Very good, Gold👍 Silver? 🤔✍

[@Arne-ns2mw]

Hello Mrs and Mr Sreetips. Man...I am suprice how much gold you get🔥 Hope both of you have a wonderful morning/ day/Evening/ night 🙂 Here in Norway the clock is around 11 in the morning. Rest of the snow is soon gone...Praise God🌸🌸 The winter is long there we living. Thank you for this clip Sir. God bless your humble hart mam..Sir❤️ Arne

[@sreetips]

I know that the snow melting is a welcome sight after a long cold winter.

[@Arne-ns2mw]

You have so right Sir 🌺🌺

[@grapsorz]

those thing's is worth more as collectibles then gold value now days. especially if they r big cache ones. as a PC collector this is torture.

[@fredygump5578]

PC collector is a thing? I didn't know.

[@scrappydoo7887]

@@fredygump5578 it really is, some of the earlier models go for silly money

[@fredygump5578]

@@scrappydoo7887 I know some people go for the super early stuff, but Pentiums don't seem old enough. A car needs to be 25 years old to be licensed as a collector car...I doubt these are 25 years old?

[@goranaxelsson1409]

@@fredygump5578 You are correct, pentium pro came out in 1995 so these chips might be 26 years old.

[@grapsorz]

@@fredygump5578 they r 25 years old now. and stuff get older in the computer world then it do in the car world.

[@richardyoungman5178]

I didn't cry when you smashed them chips. Just had dust in my eyes.

[@ifindmetal]

That yield was low for sure

[@robinafoubister]

When you switched to the PC mic, it sounded pretty good. Just a tiny bit muffled, but I'm hard of hearing so it could be my ears playing tricks on me. Oh, I'm using headphones if that makes a difference.

[@keytefirerefining1355]

Almost cried when you broke them 😂 they kinda look bit worn anyway

[@jamie.777]

INTEL made these chips in my hometown for many years. DEC and Intel kept my property value high for years

[@goranaxelsson1409]

A number of points... - There are very little soft solders on these chips. The pins and dies are brazed on, not soldered. - The first two weeks in hydrochloric acid should dissolve any lead or tin. - The pins of the CPU:s are made of kovar, an iron nickel alloy and the heat spreader is made of a copper tungsten composite. - The pale yellow powder you see after aqua regia is the tungsten oxide from the lids, not lead sulfate. - A large part of the gold is contained in the braze holding the lid and the silicon dies to the ceramic base. If the dies are still attached to the ceramics you are missing a lot of gold. It takes a lot of time for aqua regia to reach all the gold under the silicon dies. - These chips should give on average 0.3g per chip so you lost more than half of your gold. - Your assumption that the cloudy solution with the precipitated gold is SMB is wrong. SMB is very soluble and I have never seen it make a cloudy solution. It is most probably left overs from the tungsten. Check your ceramics, I think you will find most of your gold there. Try to pry off a die from the ceramic base. Anything still attached to the ceramics, you probably have gold hiding beneath it.

[@TechCellfish]

This! I've seen others used ball mills to the issue of aqua regia penetration...

[@daithi007]

Epically detailed technical post thank you

[@sreetips]

I’ll check - thank you

[@mrgreenswelding2853]

@@sreetips the black epoxy parts have bond wire in the also. You need to incinerate them

[@goranaxelsson1409]

@@mrgreenswelding2853 There are no epoxy parts on pentium pro, only ceramic pieces. No bond wires inside the ceramics.

[@macoppy6571]

Pc adjusted mic level eliminates background noise 👍

[@wadehampton1534]

It's very easy to see why you don't recover gold from computer scrap. Unless you have a free supply of the scrap, it just doesn't justify the resources and time that it takes to do so. I'd even be wary if the scrap were free, the yield is ridiculously low compared to the amount of work required to recover less than pure gold. We've been duped into thinking that there is a gold mine in computer scrap, but it's just not so. Manufacturers use just enough gold to get the job done, and no more, and it's not even 24k (more like 12k). Thanks for the reminder, sreetips, that this is "no man's land" in gold recovery. Our time and resources are better spent on higher yield projects such as karat scrap and GF-GP pieces.

[@sreetips]

Couldn’t have said it better myself

[@JimNichols]

If you ran the CPUs through a crusher mill I wonder if it would make the gold easier to extract? Just a curiosity.

[@aredditor4272]

Hammer mill

[@dracrichards734]

Yay first comment for the second time in as many months. Lol. Love your channel and content m8. When are you doing your next stockpot video series?

[@vw8796g35]

I have been told in the past that the black powlder could be gold

[@jeromeprater183]

The Pentium Pro and some other older Pentium CPU's use a Tungsten heat spreader that may be affecting the chemical reaction.

[@stewartpidasle6165]

$900 dollars for lab supplies, lab equipment and toxic waste for $3.50 cents in gold. Sounds great :)

[@scrappydoo7887]

Well Mr Sreetips you have managed to ruffle some feathers here 🤣🤣

[@sreetips]

Sorry, was not my intent

[@scrappydoo7887]

@@sreetips theres absolutely no need to apologise to anyone 👍 least of all me, I love the upload. It's excellent information

[@sreetips]

No worries - thanks

[@dustinscroggins3382]

Sreetips man, i took 2 days off work to get stuff done around my house and then i found your video's, lol Nothing got done around my house...

[@sreetips]

Sorry about that!

[@supabiscuit]

Same😂

[@josemuzquiz7146]

I have a couple of those processors like you have there. And a lot of the newer ones. Like 5 pounds of it.

[@davidlee1719]

The heat spreaders contain tungsten, which can trap gold from AR. probably the black substance u saw was some tungsten that broke up

[@MrDannyd9]

You can filter the gold particulate and put the filter paper in the melt dish; you wouldn’t have left the gold in the waste container.

[@Ziegen-Sauger]

By far, this is fantastic!!!! PPro is the créme de la créme of all eWaste

[@ogbullion]

Nope! It's the PPro plastic fantastic the créme de la créme 😉

[@josephcormier5974]

That right there is why I stock pile thank you I learned what I did wrong the first time I try

[@Dillinger86]

Aww !!! Not the chips .. omg, yeah that just got me right in the feels... hahaha

[@johnhdavis2072]

You will get better results if you break up the chips better around the internal chips.

[@ivsongold322]

Nice 👌

[@dr.lexwinter8604]

Watching those chips get hit hurt! :'(

[@TheKaos90]

I literally cringed a few times thought the beaker will crack

[@Quartzleo]

So I'm curious about this process, had you used more scrap would you have had to increase the amount of the solution or would you have been able to yield more returns for the effort put into it?

[@PoorMiners321]

great video sir thanks for sharing

[@sethf.1199]

14:55 how to make homemade mountain dew.

[@bitsofeverything8385]

They are pieces of history, always a shame to see them go, if you didn't do it someone else would of eitherway so nice to see this :).

[@peter-oud-ijzer]

0.43 grams of gold each X 4 = 1.62 with 4 pieces

[@A.J.Collins]

Thank you for the great content.

[@besotoxicomusic]

I’m emotionally attached to these chips but I’d be more attached to the gold if I could do what you do.

[@matthewf1979]

Yeah, you have to have tons of E-Waste to be profitable. There a guy in India that has a scrap recovery channel. He does 50 kilos at a time with a huge furnace and a kids swimming pool for the acid reactions.

[@ingwarnilsson668]

My heart broke when you smashed them.

[@Jkauppa]

your setup looks a lot like a clean room nano electronics lab

[@pc6106]

I'm suprised you don't need to pulverize the ceramic first. There aren't any gold filaments embedded inside?