Computer Scrap Pentium Pro CPU Gold Recovery

[@houndstooth8857]

sreetips: *crushes old processors with hammer* retro tech guys: 😱😱😱

[@benjaminforman8901]

Lol, my man sreetips forgot about the last time he did cpus! Granted, it wasn't QUITE as wonky.😅 But here's the most important lesson I learned DIRECTLY from you: The more effort you put in at the beginning, the better and more predictable the outcome. Every single one of your vids is 24k.👍👍

[@sreetips]

Good point!

[@whiterhyno3574]

I couldnt agree more definitely 24 k mr sreetips

[@mave4456]

Your ebay has amazing reviews. Wish I could spend a few days with someone like you to learn a lot about this. Growing up always thought chemistry was amazing. Almost killed myself making chlorine gas in a small room in my basement when I was like 12. Luckily made it thru that and gained a lot of respect for chemicals.

[@sreetips]

I had a small chemistry lab in my basement when I was a kid. This is an extension of those days.

[@CatsMeowPaw]

Seven CPUs yielded 1.7g of gold, or 0.242g per CPU. Gold is at US$87 per gram today, so each CPU yielded US$21 in gold. I really like these videos as apart from showing the whole gold recovery process from ICs, it also shows people that it's not worth doing. The CPU is worth far more as a collectable on eBay.

[@TechCellfish]

Content seems low compared to data on other forums, they are around 0.4g mark. I hope the rest are in the filter papers.

[@play_vintage_810]

Working cpus are selling for $40.00 on eBay and that is on the low end (more cache = more cash) So for the time, energy, supplies, and dangerous smell factor.... you could have a better roi selling options on the stock market.

[@iAmGrizzlyBear420]

That's what I was thinking the whole time lol so you spend probably thousands getting equipment and chemicals all to salvage not even 100$ worth of gold 😅 maybe once this gets to a certain scale it starts making sense, but with just a small amount of hardware to get gold from it definitely seems like more of a fun experiment rather than a money making scheme lol

[@americanman5270]

What I get from his channel is that most things in the unrefined form that contain gold are worthless outside of a niche market. Refining the gold down in it's purest form is worth whatever it's worth to everyone. It's more valuable over time. The $40 hed get for them can easily lose value over a relatively short period of time. Of you're in for the long haul gold is the way to go

[@stevenkeeffe]

Chief, I can't tell you how entertaining it was for me to watch you smash those processors. The last server farm I had to tend to for the USAF ran motherboards with dual Pentium Pro's and racks of hard drives. That scene from Office Space with the printer comes to mind.

[@INSIGHTCO]

You are showing your age with that movie reference.

[@davidmontroy3408]

Damn it feels good to be a gangster!

[@badinibeats5939]

ive been on and off scraping carat gold for my whole adult life and also have built up a nice pile gold filled scrap and have been watching these vids for the last 10 years preparing to refine lol

[@GrifterX]

Make a video on it and tag sreetips lol

[@hardergamer]

Same here, I keep old phones, CPUs and motherboards etc, I scrap them myself one day, but till then I collect any gold bullion ie, coins and bars.

[@ashchbkv6965]

don't drop it when it's dissolved 😂

[@badinibeats5939]

@@ashchbkv6965 😂🤣exactly why ill probably just sell it on ebay one day ahha

[@VerucaPumpkin]

Do you think you have a lot or?

[@ProspectorTripp]

That was very entertaining! I enjoyed watching your operational acid frustration. 😆 I know it well! You started like usual, carefully 6ml nho3, then after discovering the gold precipitated back out.. a little less careful on the second extraction attempt.. then pouring in the nitric directly from the bottle. 😅 When I refine electronic gold scrap, I often need to extract the gold two or sometimes three times to get it all. As you well know, it is not as simple as a 14k gold ring. Electronic gold scrap: The initial burn is always necessary, like others do.. I've learned to burn, crush, and burn again, which really helps. Also, I overdose the nitric a bit compared to refining karat scrap. Like you saw, if the ar solution is nho3 weak, the gold will often precipitate back out. Enjoyed, sir. Stay Golden Peace Prospector Tripp

[@ChrisCVW]

I wonder if the precipitation issue is due to all the extra surface area the chips provide?

[@Raeuberhotzenplotz7589]

I'd love to see if it would work with electrolyses like you did years ago with some military goldplated pins. But anyways a nice video as always and good for my knowledge. Thanks Sreetips have a nice day!

[@sreetips]

Sulfuric acid stripping cell. The substrate needs to be metal for that to work.

[@Raeuberhotzenplotz7589]

@sreetips Ahh okay. Thank you for your reply :)

[@sreetips]

@@Raeuberhotzenplotz7589 you’re welcome

[@harrytsohalis9163]

Thank you for the great videos, they are really helpful

[@sreetips]

Excellent, thank you

[@guygordon2780]

@8:25 The powder in the filter paper looks a little purple. Could that contain more gold than the few flecks of foil we can see?

[@sreetips]

Possibly

[@jlemieu1]

Silver chloride was the killer of the gold extraction.

[@sreetips]

Nothing but grief!

[@chrisconnolly4603]

Very interested if the cost of chemicals, reagents, the CPUs, and even amount of gas used to melt the gold used put you at a loss in the end. Still a great video on the process. Gold still better than the paper used to buy the products.

[@sreetips]

No, the cost exceeds the value of the gold.

[@jimmyr9468]

Sreetips, would it make sense to closely visually inspect the smashed material and remove anything that is obviously not gold before it goes into the beaker? It seems a lot of stuff goes into the beaker that doesn't need to and that might affect the yield, and costs more in time and chemicals too.

[@sreetips]

Possibly

[@PlayinWithGhosts]

I couldn't find anything about the national archives preserving old technology outside of media format documents, but it would be really cool if they did have historical reference physical medium for technology. I would have thought they were doing that already. For the love of science, this one was super cool to watch. As always, thank you sir!

[@johnhunt1725]

There will come a day when those museum pieces will be worth more than their weight in gold. We might not still be alive by then, but the day will come.

[@grapsorz]

this r not far from it. it rely hurt me ot se this historical important CPU is broken to bit's. i hope they r all 256K variant's and not 512k ones (i think the 1024k ones is black ones)

[@patricksimons560]

i still have a few!

[@thajoynt]

They already are...

[@johnhunt1725]

@@thajoynt They're worth more than the gold that's in 'em, but not worth their weight in gold - yet.

[@William_Borgeson]

I have about 20 of them in a shadow box, plenty of them will be around trust me.

[@na57y]

I have similar experience with disappearing gold! That is the reason why I love your videos with CPU, gold plated pins and other electronic.

[@WarkWarbly]

Depending on the model of those cpu's they might be a rather odd edition. For the later Pentium Pro CPU in order to increase the cache size (on chip static RAM), they switched from heat bonded ceramic, to a glued on plastic. Both the glue and the plastic are quite reactive to nitric. Think pouring fuming nitric acid on vinyl gloves. They immediately start on fire because of the reactivity. You already know that nitric prefers copper over silver (hence the silver cement) but the nitric prefers these polymers (glue and plastic) over the metals. What's most likely happening is that the nitric is separately reacting with the polymers and half reacting with the gold. Since its preference is the polymers, the gold precipitates out. **JUST A THEORY, NEEDS FACT CHECKING AND SALT** Edit: I think I might be close, as PVA or PVC might be the bonding adhesive. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC, a type of plastic or polymer) would precipitate chloride salts.

[@sreetips]

Ok, thanks for the info

[@billlange9408]

Man, the amount of bids I just had to make to get get the high bid was wild! Someone really wants this one!

[@babs1_2]

sorry, you got out bid again

[@billlange9408]

@@babs1_2 I just saw that! lol

[@sixfigureskibum]

Snipe is the only way

[@ZoonCrypticon]

@22:10 Perhaps the white and yellow solids would be AlCl3 or Al2(SO4)3 ?

[@sreetips]

Who knows what metals lurk in the alloys of men?

[@josephcormier5974]

Still not too bad of a recovery a very informative and enjoyable video sir thank you for sharing this with us six stars

[@sreetips]

Thanks!

[@american7169]

Get a small hammer mill, make life easier and extract more. Mill the cpu, cook it, then chemistry.

[@sreetips]

Excellent advice, thank you.

[@peternoble735]

Sreetips - thank you for satisfying that inner curiosity we never knew we had!! Your videos are always a day brightener!!

[@sreetips]

Thank you!

[@JaredKaragen]

Hey Kevin, Yeah, I agree the incineration is important, but the thing causing all the hassle with extraction was definitely the base metals left in the pot after the nitric operation. These CPU's have a LOT of base metals in them, the traces inside the ceramic from all the pins, and the reminants of the caps over the top and/or bottom.... as well as the copper thats in the silicon itself. Im pretty sure they do a silver plating before the gold plating on them, and that's probably the white precipitate that was hounding you. I usually do many extended nitric extractions on ceramic cpus just to avoid such nonsense. Some people I have seen just break them open, then premix aqua regia and do a quick extraction, pouring it off relatively quickly, then a second premix extraction until it appears the gold has been pulled off; basically done quick to not let the base metals pull it out of solution. KEep up the good content man. Always enjoy watching.

[@blister762]

Those things have multiple layers of titanium, aluminum and tungsten. Also a bit of copper but copper and silicon don't like each other and can create voids where the two meet with out an intermediate layer like aluminum or tungsten between them. Copper contamination was a problem and if a tool was contaminated it could take days to decon and requalify it for production. The last project I worked on before retirement was the Pentium III/Coppermine process. It was a process to increase the amount of copper in the layers without contaminating the silicon.

[@sreetips]

Thanks for the info.

[@unephi]

man i've been watching you for like 10 years, since i was a kid... i love so much that you still upload so often, and you are a beautiful drop of pure awesomeness on this (generally full of garbage) platform...

[@sreetips]

That is good to hear my friend. Thanks for being a loyal subscriber.

[@paulknight1879]

There might be more gold in the wast of CPUs left love watching and listening to u in your videos.

[@ArielleViking]

Those chips sure were ornery, nice button at the end, mightn't have been as much gold as hoped but the video was gold. 👍🏻

[@sreetips]

Yes, they can be tricky!

[@jackn2236]

I remember hearing on TV that trace amounts of gold can be found in ocean water, not sediment on the seabed, in the water itself. One of the people on the show asked "If that is true, than why does no one make a living extracting gold from sea water?" The answer to that is clearly shown in this video, the amount of gold that can be extracted from sea water is so small that extracting it is not economically viable.

[@sreetips]

Correct. There’s gold in your back yard. There’s enough gold in the earths core to coat the entire planet in pure gold 13 inches thick. The problem is getting at it.

[@kurtremislettmyr7108]

I just love the color of clean gold in solution 😊

[@sreetips]

Me too!

[@timothygorman2846]

The ceramic they use for chips can contain all sorts of metal oxides. That would be my guess as to what was causing problems with the recovery.

[@johno1544]

I forgot about the beaker breaking the last time you dropped broken CPUs into one. Lesson learned

[@ghosttwo2]

I wonder if there's an impurity that's interfering with the stannous test itself? Like, gold was present in all of the samples, but the stannous was being stopped from reacting. I wonder if dipping the black stannous paper into the green stuff would make it go clear? I note that silicon and germanium are in the same column as tin.

[@innerklnklansklansnklan]

Dear Mr. Sreetips, I hope this comment finds you well. It has been quite some time since your last undertaking involving the refining of computer components, and I have consistently appreciated your depth of knowledge in this specialized area. I am particularly interested in the methodologies employed in your refining projects using old computer parts. Do these procedures align with those utilized for refining precious metals found in coins, jewellery, and antique decorative items made of gold? Specifically, I would like to understand the steps involved, any significant differences in material composition, and how the electronic waste stream affects the refining process. Additionally, could you shed light on the chemical processes involved, such as the types of solvents or acids you find most effective for separating metals from circuit boards and components? Understanding the nuances of each method would not only satisfy my curiosity but also enhance my knowledge of the broader implications of e-waste recycling in sustainable practices. I look forward to your insights on this intriguing subject. Best regards to you and the family!

[@sreetips]

Thank you. My problem is that I only have limited experience with gold recovery from electronic scrap. I made multiple mistakes in this video due to my lack of experience with escrap. So my insight would be from a novice point of view.

[@DeadJDona]

​@@sreetips it would be really nice to have advices like "do not do that and this"

[@innerklnklansklansnklan]

@sreetips I see.

[@innerklnklansklansnklan]

@@DeadJDona 🤷‍♂️

[@deanfranklin6870]

Contamination on the chips could cause the gold to go out of solution. Your thought that you should have touched the chips was probably spot on. Lead or tin could complicate everything. But contamination is likely Have you ever considered weighing the filters

[@sreetips]

No, I just add them to my paper storage.

[@ZoonCrypticon]

@12:30 Could the addition of the amount of sulfuric acid be responsible for the shift within the aqua regia, so that the gold got back in solution ? Or it has to do with the aluminium oxide and silicon nitride ceramic of the CPU. The HCL would dissolve the Al2O3 and form AlCl3.

[@sreetips]

I’m not sure, I don’t have enough experience processing these for the gold that they contain.

[@dalesimonds]

I’m wondering if you weren’t better off to separate the foils from the other scrap before adding aquareggia

[@sreetips]

It crossed my mind

[@mrwest5552]

is your resperator mask a 3M model ? - i have some PCB's i'm taking to the recycling center.

[@sreetips]

3MP95

[@mrwest5552]

@@sreetips - Thank You

[@walkthroughguru]

Some ceramic chips contain a titanium as a pigment it could be that cemented out the gold . Also broken a few beakers myself droping them in too hard.

[@pavlovssheep5548]

heating the ceramic cpu then dropping into cold water may help shatter the ceramic

[@danielfiore8865]

That's worth a shot actually

[@fusionaddict]

Today I learned that first-gen Pentiums were the size of drink coasters.

[@jeremylackey3477]

Pentium II's were slot-type cards. :D

[@fwiffo]

Pentium Pro were second gen.

[@blister762]

​@@jeremylackey3477Not all of them. They came in both LGA, like those in the video, or slot 1 configuration. Intel built a plant in DuPont Washington for slot 1 packaging. The slot 1 format was short lived. A guy I worked with at the Aloha, Oregon campus transfered up there and about 2 years later he was back in Aloha.

[@sinoperture]

@@fwiffo Nope. They were released in near parallel….

[@djsnowman06]

And had the same performance specs as drink coasters...

[@robertclark2959]

Like the RAM chips the material probably absorbs into the remaining b chip material. Probably remedied by burning first.

[@sreetips]

Burning is probably critical and skipped it.

[@cracklingice]

Probably still some metals in the reactivity series that are slowly replacing the gold.

[@MoshriqMohammed]

Good morning Mrs and Mr Sreetips from beautiful Dubai 😍 🙏🌹

[@sreetips]

Good morning Dubai

[@alquimiavsmetalica5250]

Not translated Solo has recuperado el 5% de estas tarjetas todo el circuito está impreso en oro entre el material tierra rara . Para recuperar el 100% del oro hay que destruir totalmente la cerámica negra con un molino o amoladora modificada . Para una amoladora modificada solo tienes que ocupar una holla de cocina con tapa de ajuste y un aro llanta para proteger los lados o crear el bote desde cero pero usando cierres similares en las amoladoras tienen 3 o 2 agujeros para ajustar el cabezal a utensilios de banco . Debes crear un plato o herraje con el agujero central y los respectivos pernos y hay colocar la maquina y solo con una única cadena crear el molino colocando centrada en el eje mismos eslabones por cada lado en el lateral que sería el lado de la cazuela se suelda un tolva con cadenas finas colgando para editar proyección o que tenga tapa y se van introduciendo las memorias cerámicas . Si separas el metal del polvo de memorias cerámicas y extraes el oro solo de la parte metálicas que no se trituran y luego de este polvo verás las perdidas

[@sreetips]

Excellent, thank you

[@keen1957]

Boy oh boy, I’m glad you don’t have to do this to often. You would have had better results boiling some rocks containing gold.

[@kingjameson1318]

❤ best Chanel on you tube !

[@sreetips]

Thanks man!

[@Arne-ns2mw]

AMEN MY FRIEND. 🔥🎈🔥

[@WYTW1DOW3R]

Is this profitable at this scale of recovery? Seems like the acid alone would eat your profits.

[@sreetips]

If you mean can I buy the CPUs, recover the gold, then immediately resell the gold for more than the basis cost plus expenses? The answer is not immediately. But when gold hits ten grand, then maybe.

[@chriscanfield4149]

Why didn’t you test the blue solution for something more valuable than gold at the end?

[@sreetips]

Because it would have been traces only

[@richardspacetimeuhrensamml4236]

Diese umständlichen chemischen Prozesse zur Gold Rückgewinnung, sind Geduld Proben 🌟

[@sreetips]

Strongly agree

[@markpierantozzi8734]

It’s definitely not worth trying to refine gold from electronic scrap all that time and effort plus the chemicals. I really appreciate all your hard work and showing us how this stuff works and what it takes to try to make some money.

[@infectedrainbow]

it can be worthwhile, but only on large scales that are beyond amateurs.

[@hardergamer]

Depends on how much you have, and what you pay for it.

[@GoldRefiner05]

I’m not saying this to be rude but you don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. Ewaste is incredibly profitable, far more so than buying karat gold scrap. Just can’t be buying it from eBay, you have to find alternative sources to get it at a lower cost.

[@sixfigureskibum]

Its an expensive learning curve but ive recoverd hella more gold from electronics past 2 years than i fo8nd prospecting 45 years

[@ut000bs]

At today's price he got about $150 worth of gold out of it. It paid for itself just at spot but you are right, it is not a money-maker. It's just a hobby that has a monetary return instead of being a money sink.

[@jerrydavis7130]

This happened to me when working on the gold band oscillators. I dissolved all other metals in CuCl2, then proceeded with AR and heat. When reaction died down, solution looked normal, but after it cooled down, it turned cloudy and looked like orange juice. Most likely it is caused by tungsten and gold is trapped in that yellow precipitate. I was expecting 1.2 grams of gold and was able to drop only 0.3 grams. This was my first attempt to refine gold and I lost almost a gram of gold, because I dumped rest of material and didn’t touch refining for two years. When I saw that yellow precipitate in your beaker, I knew right away, that you are going to have trouble getting all gold out.

[@peterhawkins4612]

If I didn’t live on the other side of the world I would build you a miniature ball mill to grind everything into a fine powder before you start too see if it would make the rest of the process more efficient.

[@sreetips]

That's a great idea. I need to get one, some day!

[@OwlTech333]

0,75g still on the CPUs, right under the silicone die

[@AndyGraceMedia]

This is exactly right! The Pentium Pro was a beast and particularly the first versions which had two separate dies on the one package - one for CPU, the other for the ultra fast cache static RAM. Initially there wasn't a fabrication process with small enough gate length which could integrate both onto the same silicon- hence the reason for plenty of gold bonding wires. Kevin/Chief I think you will be surprised if you really crush up that ceramic waste to a fine powder and try again. Most of the gold you recovered would have been from the plated pins and heat spreader. The real value in these is in the gold bonding wires to the silicon dice .. those are pure gold rather than electroplated like the nickel pins.

[@YashmikaWickramasinghe-qe2en]

Where do you buy cpu,s it,s alibaba

[@sreetips]

I bought them on eBay.

[@AwareOCE]

Its crazy to think that "Its not worth the gold its made of" is now a legitimate applicable saying for our absurdly advanced technology

[@TechneMoira]

Nice little bead mr Sreetips :) I wonder what that extremely cloudy off-pour contained... did you keep it? It would be nice if you did some analysis on it ... I can't imagine those chip dies would contain that much silver... Before I forget, a belated Happy New Year to you and ms Sreetips too, of course, and thanks for all those fun videos !

[@sreetips]

Happy Nee Year, and thanks!

[@pozeetronz]

MetaTin acid is every refiner's nightmare, so the solder should be disposed of immediately.

[@Cjohn31]

Was that ice cube tapp water or distilled?

[@sreetips]

Tap water

[@Cjohn31]

@sreetips thanks

[@steverebuilds152]

Thats wild. Seems like lot more silver/copper and PGM rather than gold

[@ZoonCrypticon]

Would it be possible to cook the Pentium-Pro-Chips in sulfuric acid first (instead of incinerating them) to loosen the contact of the gold foils from the aluminium oxide of the ceramic and then wash the flakes off in distilled water ?

[@sreetips]

Possibly. I don’t have much experience with these. I might buy some more and try it again with lessons learned from this attempt.

[@AncalimeNL]

what kind of elements besides Au, Ag and Cu do you get from this refinement method?

[@ObsoletePencil]

I know this one! Small amounts of PGMs, usually.

[@sreetips]

Not sure

[@ExtractingMetals]

@sreetips I’d love to see a video where you wet down the shop floor and use a wet vac to clean it. Take the sludge and recover the metals that have accumulated over the years. Would make an epic series!!!

[@sreetips]

That would be awesome!

[@jasong8377]

Most of those white solids are probably tin and silver chloride because a large majority of those chips they used silver bonding wires instead of gold some later ones even have aluminum bond wires and I've found its better to pop the back caps off with a heat gun and look at the wires with a loop and then the Crystal chip as well they almost always have gold brazing under them that gets left behind if not removed i usually just shatter the crystal with a center punch so the acids can work under the crystal and the way you smashed the chips up on the concrete floor I can almost guarantee you you lost Bond wires on to the floor

[@larsmichael7162]

the yellow stain at the bottom of the chip-filled beaker, is that sulfur?

[@sreetips]

No, some unknown metal salts used in those CPUs.

[@Arne-ns2mw]

Hello Mrs and Mr Sreetips. Thanks for the clip. God bless you,🙏 A head Scratch Sir.😂 You makes my day with this clip and coments,😂. Thanks buddy🔥

[@sreetips]

Glad you enjoyed it Arne

[@Arne-ns2mw]

@@sreetips Thank you Sir 😀

[@dirkschippers2957]

Any thoughts on what the yellow residue on the chips and in the filter is?

[@sreetips]

No clue

[@tamanazad-se6gk]

Thanks for your video brother, I have a question why in minute 21,instead of evaporating with hydrochloric to remove the nitrogen,you used distilled water does the use of distilled water completely destroy the nitrogen residue?

[@sreetips]

No, adding distilled water won’t destroy the excess nitric. Evaporation down to a syrup does rid it of excess nitric.

[@tamanazad-se6gk]

@sreetips Thanks for your answer brother, I meant you in the 21st minute, why did you use distilled water instead of adding hydrochloride and then steaming quickly? I used this method until it became juicy, but when I retrieved the gold, there was a nitric residue that immediately melted the gold! What is your advice to get rid of this residue?

[@sreetips]

Evaporate down to syrup until all the red fumes are gone. Then the excess nitric will be gone.

[@OG_Wakanobi]

Could the gold have dropped out of solution as a result of some remaining metal, ie. the lead you dropped out with the H2S04 via Chelation?

[@sreetips]

Possibly

[@360Vacation2]

I have some of those, ugh. Thank you so very much for your work. You are the best!!

[@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730]

that was one of the most stunning flashovers on that precipitation that i've ever seen on the channel

[@JSMCPN]

The substrate material is basically a sponge. "bismaleimide triazine laminate" fiberglass/resin composite.

[@atrus445]

Flatten it and stamp an "Intel Inside" logo on it.

[@travisduggins]

You used ferrous sulphate for a reason didn't you? SMB would have created a little.. well problem with the precipitation of such gold.

[@sreetips]

I wasn’t quite sure of what metals were in solution with the gold. SMB could cause other metals, if present, to come down with the gold and contaminate it. Ferrous sulfate is very selective precipitating only the gold and leaving everything else in solution.

[@travisduggins]

@sreetips good to know. I got the book you mentioned in one of your videos, on page 66 so far

[@sreetips]

@@travisduggins it’s a good one. I’ve got some good ideas for videos from it. But it’s a little dated. She (the author) says to use a fan to blow nitrogen dioxide fumes out the window. And to protect the pipes by flushing with plenty of water. Neither of these are safe to do.

[@travisduggins]

@@sreetips yeah I appreciate that clarification. Been on a gold kick for 3 years now haha

[@weasel6three597]

Hmm.. I wonder if you would have had better luck carefully picking out the gold foils early on and then process the chips like you did? Keep the videos coming!

[@dannomight1980]

Recovering gold from Electronics of even gold filled is quite a bit more tedious for what the yield is in the end. Playing musical flasks with cloudy solution that clogs the filter extending the time filtering amongst other side quests can have one swearing off e waste recovery putting them at the top of the "rather not" list with gf wristwatch bands 😆 Thank you for the content and learning experience as always Sir Sreetips!

[@entity9742]

18:43 that green color always indicates either silver or copper in solution Likely what happened is the AR solution dissolved the gold then as it evaporated in the process of dissolving the gold it slowly got replaced with silver (and trace copper) As for the gold separation in the solution its possible your AR acid is getting diluted when dissolving the gold and its also possible it could be just old as that could possibly mess with how it reacts when dissolving gold/silver

[@EdwarPitnaen]

Correct me if I am wrong ... But is the stannous reaction color Purple indicative of PGM Metals ?

[@vinnycordeiro]

No, purple is gold. PGMs are green and orange.

[@sreetips]

Purple is gold. Orange is platinum, green is palladium.

[@FZR650]

The gold could have soaked up in the porous ceramic housing of the CPU when cooling.

[@williefleete]

I wonder if trace amounts of base metal caused the gold to go out of solution Possibly the metal layers on the silicon or the internal structure in the ceramic that nitric couldn’t get to

[@sreetips]

I couldn’t believe how it went back and forth, gold, no gold, gold, no gold. Drove me nuts!

[@puellanivis]

You’re surely crashing out any silver chloride by using distilled water to move the gold over to the other beaker… and all that wet precipitate is probably going to hold onto some gold, right? That first SMB waste water is _BLUE_?! OMG, this is a crazy extraction.

[@sreetips]

Bizarre

[@jph8266]

Not for nothing but do you think that the cost of the chemicals in the third and fourth times through the process is worth the gold potentially recovered?

[@sreetips]

Absolutely

[@Einimas]

I was always wondering are these classic cpus are woth more to the nerds than the value of gold you get from them.

[@Drednox1]

Is the ceramic causing the gold to precipitate onto it?

[@sreetips]

I don’t know

[@AlexRodopi]

What a hard and expresive work, and a so few gold get...

[@sreetips]

Agree

[@douglaswilliams5665]

What is that test cem on the filter u use

[@sreetips]

Stannous chloride testing solution.

[@drumscholar42]

excellent Craftsmanship!

[@sreetips]

Thank you

[@scarter9447]

where does all the bromine gass come from?

[@sreetips]

Probably nitrogen dioxide

[@scarter9447]

@@sreetips Alchemy! -)

[@campbellmorrison8540]

I suspect you should crush them into finer material because the internal tracks in the ceramic will be gold and I doubt the acid would make contact with these if still sandwedged in ceramic

[@WarkWarbly]

Separate Comment: (I have another comment with a theory as to why the odd behaviour this reaction.) Try boiling in glacial acetic acid to release any glue/adhesives that are nitric sensitive. Just a quick 10 minute boil and a thorough rinse. We do **not** want to remove anything, just enough to initiate the decay process of any glue/adhesive/polymers.

[@VerucaPumpkin]

Fun to watch. Seemed like a lot of work. What would you do differently next time I'm curious? Would you buy similar cpu components again or?

[@sreetips]

Incinerate at the beginning

[@sreetips]

We will find out. I just bought 7 more on eBay. I’ll do another video. But this time I’ll take my time and adjust the process from lessons learned in this video.

[@bradleywalsh4103]

I remember back when I had a Pentium 75mhz with an ATI Rage 128 vid card lol, 16mb of ram, used to rock Duke Nukem and then Quake and Command & Conquer over dial up lol. Crazy how far teachnology has come in 25-30yrs.

[@sreetips]

I remember Nuc Dukem! My daughter and I played it with two PCs networked together via hard cable connection between the two PCs. The only thing more spectacular is how much value and purchasing power the U.S. dollar has lost in the last hundred years. In 1925 it took just $22 to buy an ounce of gold. Today it takes $2700. So $22 divided by $2700 dollars equals 0.008 so 1 minus 0.008 equals 0.992 or 99.2% of its value has VANISHED. Where’d it go? Its value was destroyed by creating currency “without limit” out of thin air with nothing to back it. And with the U.S. dollar continuing to make new all time lows priced in gold, we’ve got a long way to go. Especially with a new admin coming in next week whose policy is to ramp up with BPS (Borrow, Print, and Spend). How low can it go? We’ll find out as gold continues to rise priced in dollars. It’s a mathematical certainty. And I like betting on sure things.

[@bradleywalsh4103]

@sreetips I completely agree with you. People should hedge against inflation with silver and gold. Here in Canada, the outgoing party has decimated our economy with printing money and massive spending. Clearly our deficit isn't at your level with only 41 million people but considering 10 yrs ago our middle class was determined best in the G7 and now it's the worst, it's never been so important to tighten ourr belts and show some fiscal responsibility in government. Scandal after scandal and the wasted money is ridiculous yet they spend and print like theres no tomorrow. In 2024 our deficit was larger than all previous governments combined. Fortunately we have a fractured country realizing the failed policies and deciding to come together under someone with a real plan. It's going to be an up hill battle but it has to now before we are devalued even further.

[@bradleywalsh4103]

I completely agree with you. People should hedge against inflation with silver and gold. Here in Canada, the outgoing party has decimated our economy by printing money coupled with massive spending. Clearly our deficit isn't at your level with only 41 million people but considering 10 yrs ago our middle class was determined best in the G7 and now it's the worst, it's never been so important to tighten our belts and show some fiscal responsibility in government. Scandal after scandal and the wasted money is ridiculous yet they spend and print with no end in sight. As of 2024, our current goverments deficit is larger than all previous governments combined. Fortunately, the vast majority of our fractured country is understanding the failed policies and is assembling together under someone with competence. The devaluation needs to stop now!

[@sreetips]

Sometimes I get carried away, sorry for the rant.

[@bradleywalsh4103]

No apology necessary. We may be from neighboring countries but I wholeheartedly agree with you. I would love to see both of our countries improve, avoiding an economic conflict which will damage both sides in the long run. Now is the time we should solidify our alliance and accords. No matter what happens, I will continue to stack silver and gold as much as I can.

[@mikehalvorsen4788]

Another great video !!!! I was wondering though. Do you think you were dealing with a plastic or substance that you didn't know about? Interesting discoloration that appeared when you were tying to extract the gold. Thank you again. 😎👍

[@KD0CAC]

I think the manufactures having been watching your videos --- and changed things --- just to mess you ;) Thanks again

[@michaelotoole1807]

with the volume of computer chips made every year its a lot of gold in electronics for shure.

[@GoldenAgePuritan]

A ball mill would help turn chips to dust and really expedite the processing.

[@sreetips]

Agree, but I don’t have one.

[@mcjdubpower]

Gud vid sir 💯🔥

[@sreetips]

Thank you.

[@richardwarnock2789]

Thank's Nice Bead Strange Happening's Kinda Glad the Shiney Came Through !!!; )

[@hiddentruth1982]

In the time lapse it looked like the nitric boil was breathing. It would go up the exhale and the red death would clear up only for it to come down and the red death to come back. Rather interesting looking.

[@DavidDavis-yep]

Gooooood evening from central Florida! Hope everyone has a great night!

[@MustangWriter]

Right back atcha' from the Texas Hill Country

[@DavidDavis-yep]

@MustangWriter 👋Howdy!

[@der_pinguin44]

Space Coast checking in!

[@DavidDavis-yep]

@der_pinguin44 Hello!👋

[@CothranMike]

Rocket City USA here!

[@RickBaker-p8g]

Hi Sreetips. Need your help again. This is Rick Bakker from Annandale Minnesota. Trying to get gold from finger from PC boards. I did the Goldfingers with deluded nitric and after the foils came off, then I made the aqua Reja to get it all into solution. I neutralize it with sulfuric acid crystals. Then I filtered the solution.

[@edwardtk1210]

The chips could be a carbon ceramic and the carbon is acting like a binder and binding the gold to the carbon?

[@edwardtk1210]

If I’m right the white is monoatomic gold at 22:00

[@sreetips]

I’m that familiar with it.

[@sreetips]

I did research on monoatomic gold and according to Wikipedia it’s pseudo science.