MICROSCRAPPINGE-waste field guide

Desktop motherboard teardown

ATX / mATX · 244 × 200 mm · 0.5–0.9 kg

Mid grade — $3.15–10/lb depending on socket era

Era read: AGP + IDE + PS/2 and no SATA puts it in 1998–2004, the sweet spot: leaded solder, gold bond wire, and a coin-flip on palladium MLCCs.

Where the value sits

CPU socketDIMM slotsRear I/OExpansion slotsVRM & chokesChipset BGASATA / IDE headersFront panel & CMOS
CPU socket
ZIF or LGA. Pull the CPU first — it's the single most valuable part and it protects the socket contacts.
DIMM slots
Gold-fingered RAM. Strip heat spreaders before weighing — $50/lb vs $18/lb.
Rear I/O
USB, RJ45, audio jacks. Steel shells, minimal gold. Magnet-sort them.
Expansion slots
PCI / PCIe / AGP card-edge sockets. The sockets themselves hold gold contacts.
VRM & chokes
Power stage: chokes, MOSFETs, solid caps. Copper and ferrite, no precious metal.
Chipset BGA
Northbridge / southbridge under a heatsink. Look for gold plating on the substrate perimeter.
SATA / IDE headers
Tin-plated. IDE 40-pin dates it pre-2005.
Front panel & CMOS
Header pins plus the CMOS coin cell — remove the battery before any hot work.

Strip order

Value first, hazards first, heat last.

  1. Pull the CPU Socket lever

    Check the model number before it goes anywhere near a scrap bucket. A working i5 is $15–80 against about 50 cents as scrap. Modern lidded CPU (LGA775+, Core i, Ryzen) →

  2. Pull the RAM Slot clips

    Then pry off any heat spreaders — that alone is nearly a 3× move on the grade. Gold-fingered RAM →

  3. Remove the CMOS battery Fingers or a plastic prysafety step

    Do this before heat. A lithium cell in a preheat plate is a fire. Backup batteries & Dallas RTC modules ☠ →

  4. Pull expansion cards Screwdriver

    Strip brackets and coolers first, then shear the fingers off the cards. Gold-fingered cards (untrimmed) →

  5. Pull the CPU socket Hot air / pliers350–400 °C

    LGA is surface-mount; PGA ZIF is through-hole and needs 250–280 °C board preheat. CPU socket (ZIF PGA / LGA) →

  6. Harvest gold-corner BGAs Hot air + preheat380–420 °C top, 150–200 °C bottom

    Only the ones showing gold around the substrate edge. Plain BGA pays $2/lb against $42/lb. BGA with gold tab / gold-corner BGA →

  7. Scrape the MLCCs Preheat plate + putty knife240–280 °C

    On a post-2005 board these are nickel and barely worth the labour. Judge the era first. MLCC — modern nickel (BME, post-2005) →

  8. Pull the shield cans Hot air300–340 °C

    Magnet-sort immediately. Steel to ferrous, nickel silver to the copper-alloy bin. EMI shield cans and fences →

  9. Sell the bare board —

    Grade by socket era: large socket $7.75/lb, i-series/AM4 only $2.10/lb. Desktop motherboards →

Other board types →