"Breaking Down" CPU's for Maximum$

Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

I take it he is saying cpu meaning tower.

I am assuming that PTS is correct here. I have heard a good many people refer to the entire tower as the CPU...So they are telling you that you should break down the entire down into it's various components to maximize the scrap value. Since I have a few extra minutes here I will run through the basic process for you.

First off you should get inside the tower itself. Depending on its age this could mean something as simple as removing a side panel or sliding off the entire outside of the tower.

Once inside you will see a mass of different things.

The way that I like to start is by removing the power supply. This will be the metal box that has a mass amount of wires coming out of it. the wires will be attached to the circuit boards and drives. Simply pop off the connections, remove the screws holding the power supply in and slide it out. Set this aside.

Then I like to remove the drives. There are several different ways that CD/DVD drives, floppy and hard drives can be attached. It can be screws or just simple tabs with slides attached. Once you figure it out pull the drives out and set them aside.

Now I pull out the finger cards or PCI boards. These are usually held in with one screw and then they just pop out.

Then find all the screws holding the motherboard in and remove them. The motherboard should come out easily.

Once the motherboard is out you should remove the RAM(memory), heat sink and fan, processor and any IC chips that are residing on the board.

As I said, that is the very basic of the entire operation and there is a lot of information available here on the forum. I believe that there are even some links to some videos by other members that could be of tremendous help to you.

But don't worry, you will get there. We all started out somewhere in the business and it takes a while to learn the ropes.

Originally Posted by ComputerScrapper

Once the motherboard is out you should remove the RAM(memory), heat sink and fan, processor and any IC chips that are residing on the board.

When you say any IC chips that are residing on the board, do you mean any chips that can be pried out of their socket with a small screwdriver leaving just the socket holder?

What are these chips classed as, and does anyone have a rough price for them please?

Originally Posted by wayne

When you say any IC chips that are residing on the board, do you mean any chips that can be pried out of their socket with a small screwdriver leaving just the socket holder?

What are these chips classed as, and does anyone have a rough price for them please?

Yes, the chips that can be removed with a screwdriver and leave the socket holder. These are known in the business as IC chips and they sell for $5-$6 per pound. There are other grades of them, those that have gold plating on the outside, a gold window and gold legs. The prices vary widely on the gold IC chips.

***EDIT: THIS POST NOW SEEMS REALLY REDUNDANT SEEING AS COMPUTER SCRAPPER BEAT ME TO THE PUNCH***

A good way to start is to remove every screw you can find and make piles of "like" components.
1 pile of powersupplies (can then be broken down futher)
1 pile of cd-rom drives (can then be broken down further)
1 pile of empty steel cases
1 pile of the rectangular chips that you can unclip from the main system board(these are your RAM or memory)
1 pile of motherboards (main system board)
1 pile of the boards that mount perpendicular to the motherboard and screw to the back of the case (pci cards)
1 pile of fans
1 pile of heatsinks
1 pile of the square chip under the heatsink on the motherboard (this is the CPU chip itself)
1 pile of wires
1 pile of harddrives

Once you have broken down to the individual components, go back to your guy and ask him about how to separate the CPU chips to different grades. Some CPU chips are worth 20+ dollars each for scrap, some are worth 20 cents.

Some of the piles above can be broken down further to maximaize value. Gold fingers can be trimmed and sold separately from Ram and PCI cards, hard drive and cd-rom boards can be stripped to component level, end connectors can be snipped from wires to make another pile, power supplies can be stripped to component level...you will need to decide where you will stop.