Drives & media

6 components in this category. The highest-value item here is Hard drive PCBs at $15–45 per pound.

Hard drive PCBs Drives & media · $15–45/lb Au 0.3–0.8 g/lbAg 0.5–2 g/lbCu 15–25% B HDD head arms & actuator assemblies Drives & media · $15–40/lb Au 0.1–0.3 g/lbNd NdFeB magnetsCu voice coil C Hard drive platters Drives & media · $10–11/lb Pt 1–2.2 mg per 3.5" platterBase 10–16 g aluminium each D Optical Drives & Laser Pickups Drives & media · $3–60/lb Au 0.01–0.03 g per drive ≈ 0.011 g/lbCu ~16 g/lbBase Al 200–400 g D Tape Drives & Libraries (LTO/DLT/DAT) Drives & media · $5–500/lb Au 0.05–0.20 g per LTO drive ≈ 0.03 g/lbCu ~10 g/lbBase 0.7–1.8 kg aluminium per full-height drive D Whole hard drives Drives & media · $2–5/lb Au 0.05–0.15 g/lbNd magnetsBase aluminium casting D

How this category is graded

Tier S is top material worth sorting out and keeping separate. Tier A is high value and worth the labour to harvest. Tier B is solid in volume. Tier C only pays at scale or as part of the board it sits on. Tier D is near zero — knowing what not to spend time on is half the skill.

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