Mike Ford wrote:
>Maybe I am being simple, but putting in the top bid seems like the sure
>route to acquiring this unit.
>Anybody have a CLUE as to its value as scrap?
If somebody can give me an idea of how many boards there are in such a
machine, ideally a picture of some boards, or at least an estimate as to the
dimensions of said boards and what sort of package chips they used, plastic,
ceramic, gold capped or gold pins etc, I'll try to come up with a ballpark
figure, and might ask some other people I know in the business for input. I
scrap/dispose of/remarket gear for a living, so I've dealt with a lot of
scrap, though nothing really mainframe related. Gold processors like Pentium
60's have around $50 a pound worth of gold in them, never pentiums maybe only
$35 to $40(that's what's in them, the scrapyards will pay around half that)
The presence of other things like platinum, palladium, rhodium or other more
exotic metals can complicate these calculations, and old processors most
likely have more precious metals content than the old pentiums. If they use
anything like the TCM modules in IBM mainframes (the HUGE PGA package chips
maybe 4 inches on a side, and use them in any quantity, there may be some
real scrap value, since those things have around $75 worth of metals apiece
in them by current prices. Standard PC motherboards go for around 65 cents a
pound, daughtercards go for almost $1/lb, card edges $25/lb. Aluminum drives
go for around 10 cents/lb or so, more like 15 when the Al market is decent.
The racks are pretty much worthless if they're steel. I've heard figures as
high as $3/lb on old Q-bus boards, though I'm not sure if the place was
buying them for scrap or resale as Q-bus boards. If anybody can get me any
further information I'll do my best to come up with a figure.
-Chris
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Received on Thu Nov 15 2001 - 03:58:27 GMT