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FeverBacon

New member
Joined
Aug 31, 2023
Messages
2
Location
California
Does anyone know how profitable these chips are there is a guy giving away a system that uses them (for parts) but it is a long drive and a big computer that I would need to borrow a truck for.

crt 5027
crt 7004
adc1210hcd
1(l)ns9800D
 
A computer so big you need a TRUCK to carry it?

Well that's an old computer for sure, which increases the likelihood of good parts for recovery. Most of those chips you list are PROMs, and only have modest amounts of gold in the form of bond wires. But the adc1210hcd also has gold-plated legs.

But, keep in mind that the CPU and any inserted cards will ALSO have gold both inside chips and on the 'fingers' of the board. There may also be MANY other chips on such old circuit boards, as well as gold-plated connectors, pins, tantalum caps and/or palladium/silver-containing MLCCs, silver-plated parts, etc.

I'm assuming this isn't a consumer-grade computer, since most regular households would never have one so massive. Whatever industry it was used for ALSO plays a part in determining what goodies it may hide within. Telecommunications boards are usually LOADED with gold-plated parts. Even the ports for the legs of removable PROMs can be gold-plated inside (got a little jar full of those myself).

And don't discount the additional cash you can generate from breaking down the rest of the materials. Some of those big old computers had large cast aluminum heat sinks, as well as many thick copper components, especially in wire for transformers and voltage regulators and so forth. I had some circuit boards from huge old servers with cast heat sinks weighing 5lbs EACH! 4 of them, so 20lbs cast aluminum = $10. Those boards (as well as the wire and other copper parts) also yielded about 10 lbs of clean copper when stripped down = $35.

And, if the casing is steel, then there's even some value in scrapping that too. Only $0.06/lb, but again... you need a TRUCK to carry this thing, so could be a hundred pounds of more of 'light' steel. Another $6 to toss into the change jar for every 100lbs of steel.

Every little bit of cash you can generate from an old comp adds up.

Basically, if you're getting this huge thing essentially for free, it's definitely worth it, unless by 'long way' you're talking about 500 or more miles of driving each way where you'd have to fill up the gas tank of the truck (especially if it takes diesel, which is back up over $4/gallon again.)

But a couple hour's drive? Probably a good opportunity.
 
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