Vintage IBM AS/400 PC Scrap for High Value Gold Recovery

This awesome IBM PC scrap turned out to be a very high value scrap for gold recovery.
4 Motorola CPU's and a heap of good boards loaded with IC Chips.
This Vintage IBM AS/400 is from around 1991.
I picked it up from a residential e-waste pick-up.
Watch the end for a view of the awesome circuit boards I pulled.

[@goldbunny1973]

You could maybe have a fantastic coffee table made with those boards under glass. They'd be a talking point feature and it' keep them in perfect condition for years.

[@rodneysrepurposingrecyclin3821]

I been doing this for over 9 years. only ever seen maybe 3 of these IBM machines. very nice.

[@SuperNinjazx6]

WOW that is the best computer scrap out I've ever seen. Wish I could have gotten my hands on that!!!

[@robertbrawley5048]

A tool.i like for removing things on the board is a pincher pylers. They resemble horse hooves clippers . I buy them at Harbor Freight the worl good for removing the aluminum topped chips and for removing the plastic surround on the gold pins connector

[@38911bytefree]

Evrything IBM from that era and before deserves nothing but respect

[@nickhouck4309]

I found the same with those motorolla chips, some have a socket and some are directly mounted. I have found 2 different kinds one has a bunch of skinny legs and one has thicker legs. love finding that early stuff.

[@xdebugxDotNet]

Nice scrap, I took programming courses at the local tech college in the 90's and we programmed on those AS/400's. It's a mainframe or minicomputer type system, where you had one computer with multiple terminals. Multiple people could use at the same time.

[@michaelkeith8992]

Awhile back, I was told that those white chips with the metal cover were very high grade for platinum and palladium.

[@MrGigi-dz9cv]

When i see people scrapping these machines, it hurts.

[@shanecorning5222]

OOOOOOOOOO - - - I HOPE the "Smithsonian" already has one !!!! I would IMAGINE they do. Don't fret.

[@goldbunny1973]

Its a shame IBM hasnt put out Recycling Info to aid precious metals recovery from obsolete PC's. It IS a risk smashing vintage electronics apart if you don't know what you've got as they can be worth £thousands to Specialist Collectors; You clearly know what you're doing though and this is an excellent informative video, thanks for making it.

[@bobroberts8500]

I have a couple of these, where do i find them at?

[@TehHijack]

Make sure to separate all of the eproms with crystal windows in them, you can easily sell them for 5-10$ a pound on ebay to guys that make snes and nes game repros.

[@shaneyork300]

Wow!!! Can this be topped!?!?! It's a 1 in a million.

[@raymondcote6669]

Yes use side cutters not needle nose. Screw driver instead of Exacto knife to score cover. Snd peel instead of destroying with screw pry bar

[@raymondcote6669]

Yes caps are tantalum. Round things are diodes

[@judybeckner5623]

Wow, the mother lode of gold value, great score, thanks for sharing Ben

[@bantalee2002]

It would be nice to find the landfill that has a heap of those in it. nice find Ben

[@retro-reels5652]

Some nice pcbs there

[@raymondcote6669]

Enjoy hearing the chickens. How many eggs you get? Four hens, four eggs per day i suspect

[@erbalumkan369]

so how much gold did you get out of it in the end?

[@davidhauschild5584]

I to have a very nice collection of high high grade boards .

[@Nickword1]

I can not believe you threw that frame away! i would had bought that frame with that case cover and would had made a custom PC out of it!!!

[@florianthomas7852]

buy one of ebay, its not like those things are rare as diamonds.

[@Nickword1]

that's so funny i actually did do that and i made a video of my custom IBM pc i made out of it. i just uploaded it a few days ago on my channel! lol

[@michaelhurd9337]

the aluminum covered cpus are all palladium

[@perryseay480]

those slots u were pulling out in the front were hot swappable this was based off of a server but smaller it never really caught one back than

[@libertadparasiempre809]

thank your for the video, it is very instructive, please Ben, what is the right method to extract gold from IC chip, can you make a video please?

[@judybeckner9047]

Thanks Ben

[@zackcat276]

So what was the update on this? Just curious to know. Were those yellow box capacitors tantalum? And how about those ceramic chip things, what did they turn out to be? Good video. I also enjoy hearing the excitement you have for this, I can very much relate to that when I find a good scrap item..or should I say, gold mine. Pun intended. Haha

[@eWasteBen]

Yep the yellow boxes are an old version of tantalum capacitors, the white ceramic chips have been hard to ID but there a kind of BGA Chip, I tried to depopulate a board but the ceramic just crumbles up so they need to be de-sodered so I just kept the board as they are for now.

[@zackcat276]

+eWaste Ben cool. maybe one day I'll get to come across one of those. I've scrapped servers before , just not one quite that old. scrap on buddy

[@macfixer01]

@@eWasteBen That aluminum chip design is specific to IBM and is called SLT (Solid Logic Technology) or one of it’s higher density successors. There blog below talks about them, and according to that the solder balls that attach the chip die to the ceramic contain gold flash. I can’t find any info on the silver-colored traces though? I’ve also heard over the years those chips contain palladium but nothing specific. Did you ever process any? www.righto.com/2021/02/strange-chip-teardown-of-vintage-ibm.html

[@bobroberts8500]

​@@eWasteBenI've got 2 of these, what ever came of them?

[@xylz1798]

this is funny ben cause i just got about 30 of these and all of them have old ceramic chips in them and alot of silver i think it is but tin many will say but i will have something to say about this after i watch it ty for the videos

[@bobroberts8500]

30??

[@piperdoug428]

WOW....where on earth do you get old stuff like that from, i'm earning the trust from a software and communication company and one of their IT guys said they have a machine shed full of old computer systems so fingers crossed they have a bunch of those beasts. cheers.

[@eWasteBen]

+PIPER DOUG Picked it up from a residential home, they kept it from a business they once had and just decided to get rid of it.

[@alejandrocatenaccio]

mas alla de que el sr. es una bestia (rompe todo)... hay que reconocer que NADIE va a mostrar de esa manera un AS/400... se agradeze al ANIMAL

[@oblitum]

Esa máquina vale más por su antigüedad y coleccionismo que por la muerda de oro que saca. Imbecil

[@joeambly6807]

You do realize a collector would pay wayyyyyyyy more for those boards then they are worth in Gold Scrap right?

[@ken76918]

Joe Ambly But what boring video it would be then.

[@bobroberts8500]

Where are they, i have

[@joeambly6807]

@@ken76918 wa5ching a dinglebat scrap pcbs isn't very interesting lmfao

[@chrisneal7798]

I just took in one of these and have been wondering if it's worth trying to resale as a whole, part it out or just scrap for the precious metals. .... Is there any updates on what PGM's the aluminum/ magnesium covered chips contain? Also, was it confirmed that the yellow bits were tantalum or not?

[@geneticrabbit]

im sure the cases on the main cards are magnesium and not aluminum

[@eWasteBen]

+geneticrabbit Thanks, might keep them then.

[@denzel387]

+eWaste Ben the mouhder borad

[@bobroberts8500]

I was thinking that too, they have mg stamped on them and they're darker and rougher than cast alum

[@thisisfutile]

I have one similar to this and I tore it apart. Where would I sell the components? Obviously there's Ebay and Craigslist but curious if anyone knows of reputable sites or social media groups.

[@epsidude]

Great video! It was like Christmas morning :-) Could you venture a guess as to the total scrap value of it?

[@eWasteBen]

+epsidude Hard to say because a lot of things could be sold as collectables but i'm guessing US$250+ if you can recover all the gold, platinum, silver, tantalum etc

[@ephraimt1]

41:02 "Hooly Dooly"

[@rodneysrepurposingrecyclin3821]

check ebay. some of those HDDs and tape drives are good money.

[@eWasteBen]

+Rodman Lyons I will, well the tape drive is scrapped now but I have kept the two H/D's remaining

[@rodneysrepurposingrecyclin3821]

Cool beans

[@raymondcote6669]

Peel the brass. How many megs?

[@RafalScrapper]

i use to keep an old stuff

[@perryseay480]

those Motorola cpus on the board are not what you think they are, the pins are missing on them and only have half the gold if that

[@derekkent4947]

Hey Ben, late in the video around the 43/44 minute mark when you say that you can get 30-40$ for the 2 e-prongs, what do you mean when you say remove? Just with plyers and a little prying, or by de-soldering, like you mentioned quite a bit throughout your video?

[@eWasteBen]

eproms are removable so you just pull them out straight up without bending the pins, so large pliers, straight up.

[@derekkent4947]

eWaste Ben Awesome! Thanks Ben.

[@derekkent4947]

eWaste Ben I Subscribe to and love your videos, by the way.

[@hamdialtunsal47]

Is that all in one pc?ibm?or?please?thanks

[@AimHigherWindowCleaning]

you must come across lots of little beasties doing e scrapping in ozz ey. whats the nastiest spiders you come across

[@aluriteservices2092]

HI does anyone know of sky computers?? i have allot of IBM INTEL AND SKY, PRE 1991, approximately 200 kgs of material and requiring some input......

[@eWasteBen]

+Alurite Services don't know much about sky but anything pre 90's is usually very high in precious metals, gold was cheap back then and they poured it on thick. you should get pretty good money selling the boards, drop into www.scrapforum.com.au and show us some pictures

[@MH-hj2jk]

shame when the value of something is only measured in money?,,,, lol just got to love seeing history being destroyed for such a noble reason as " gotda stop it goin inta lan fill" and keep it for gold recovery,,,, which we never see,,,, lmfao

[@claymccormick1203]

i noticed that you never take the transistors or mosfets a lot of them due to power or frequency have heavy duty gold pads if you do not want them i will give you 3 dollars a kilo for them even the ones that do not have gold have silver .

[@xylz1798]

what is the difference between ic chips e prong chips and flat packs can u please explain

[@eWasteBen]

+Nate Chaps all I know is they all have gold inside :)

[@xylz1798]

yes but do u keep ur flat packs and e prongs and and ic chips all together or seperate them i meant like which is which when it comes to them u know what is the ic chip what is the e prong what is the flat packs but i understand im a pain in butt but ty

[@eWasteBen]

+Nate Chaps yeah I seperate them, ic chips & proms are usually long, pins two sides. e-proms are the same expect have glass window on the top. flat packs usually have pins on 4 sides. bga chips usually have a gold corner on one side or look like flat cpu's stuck on the board. so 4 different buckets.

[@xylz1798]

tyty

[@victorramos1691]

if you wanted to, you could've convert this machine into a modern server

[@eWasteBen]

+Victor Ramos it was rusted inside but I have a better vintage ibm server, the rs/6000 which i'm keeping

[@Frank-bh3cm]

Doubtful!

[@xylz1798]

whats wrong with the lead acid batteries?

[@eWasteBen]

+Nate Chaps nothing, you sell 'em with car batteries

[@dalemcculloch4192]

I’ve just witnessed a crime. Surely this computer should have been saved. I love watching your videos Ben but this one was really hard to watch. These computers were not mass produced there are very little of them around. To enthusiast this is like sending a Ford falcon gtho to the scrap yard. You wouldn’t do it. I’m sorry this was very poor judgement on your behalf scrapping this

[@bobroberts8500]

Ive got 2, both pretty near stocked with cards and mega brick hard drives

[@michaelbrumfitt]

Nice I would hang them on my shed walls

[@raymondcote6669]

Pos and neg are caps

[@xylz1798]

are u gonna keep the tantalum

[@eWasteBen]

+Nate Chaps Yeah for sure, some boards i'll keep complete in my collection, others i'll depopulate completely

[@ryanfoley8035]

horrible that belongs in a museum not a scrap heap

[@videotape2959]

Uhmmm don't you think it's a bit of a shame to scrap these old computers? Some people do collect them nowadays... Anyway, I just hope nobody is scrapping old Olivetti hardware.

[@lbochtler]

I agree, i am, or rather was a vintage computer collector, though i have stooped now due to space limitations...

[@videotape2959]

***** If people want to scrap old common computers then I don't really mind, you know it is their stuff after all so what can you do... But if someone comes across an old extremely obscure Olivetti 486 or similar that might be the only one left in existence then I think it'd be nice if they would put that on ebay or something rather than scrapping it..

[@earlsworld70117]

Just imagine the collectables a scrapyard will take in on an average day.

[@OwlTech333]

I do

[@shanecorning5222]

Let alone Booting OS/2 machines? ... .. :-/

[@raymondcote6669]

electrically erasable programmable read-only memory writeable electrically, erased thru window using ultra violet light

[@davidhauschild5584]

Ben look at my Instagram posts . One of the largest mother board you’ll ever see.