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[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

For any practical purposes, yes.  If you want a small extra layer of assurance, just wipe a magnet over them before hammering.  It would take the FBI or other government agency to get data off of them after that.

ok thanks

would the magnets from car speakers work
I just removed them from my car to replace and thay seem to be pretty strong magnets

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Would it be worth the time to use said wire strippers to get copper from the wires?

That looks like a really great question for you to verify experimentally!

oh yeah, I momentarily forgot I was doing an experiment

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

On a side note, I'm not certain how you're  going to extract valuable metals from the computer system without releasing toxins.

Pretty much this. "Wires" are only a tiny component of a computer, and many of them are more valuable intact anyway. Circuit boards are basically just runes inscribed into a tablet to let the magical energies flow from one tiny component to another, while the actual valuable metals are locked up inside said tiny components, and would essentially require a refinery to get them out. Also keep in mind some of those materials are hazardous to your health. Cadmium, mercury, lead. And of those, most can be found distributed throughout your computer. This stuff is considered hazardous material for a reason.

Here's some details though: http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/3/1/152
In short, to get anything actually of any real value out, you need an integrated smelting plant capable of refining out the various materials while processing the toxic gasses you're producing in the process.

Does this mean there is no way to just sit down and tear apart the computer to get the good stuff out?
If not I may need a new experiment

[acetech09]

Possible? Yes.

Worth your time? Probably not. The amount of scrap one an produce per hour is most likely less than federal minimum wage.




Also, for destroying HDDs, the best and easiest way I've found to destroy hard drives is with a bucket of saltwater. Corrosion FTW. Although, if you're trying to salvage metal from them, it would make that hard, too. However, HDD platters likely have little salvageable material in them.

[acetech09]

On a side note, I'm not certain how you're  going to extract valuable metals from the computer system without releasing toxins.

Pretty much this. "Wires" are only a tiny component of a computer, and many of them are more valuable intact anyway. Circuit boards are basically just runes inscribed into a tablet to let the magical energies flow from one tiny component to another, while the actual valuable metals are locked up inside said tiny components, and would essentially require a refinery to get them out. Also keep in mind some of those materials are hazardous to your health. Cadmium, mercury, lead. And of those, most can be found distributed throughout your computer. This stuff is considered hazardous material for a reason.

Here's some details though: http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/3/1/152
In short, to get anything actually of any real value out, you need an integrated smelting plant capable of refining out the various materials while processing the toxic gasses you're producing in the process.

Does this mean there is no way to just sit down and tear apart the computer to get the good stuff out?
If not I may need a new experiment

If, by 'good stuff', you mean the very very fractional amounts of precious metal, then yes, it's effectively impossible..

- You'll find a handful of scrap wire, useful for home DIY electronics but most likely in lengths hard to sell or recycle.

- The steel case might be worth a few dollars in scrap steel if you can completely pick it clean.

- All the gold used might be worth $15 or so, but would require $50 in processes to get it out, except possibly on a large industrial level.



If the computers still work, or have only a few broken parts, the most eco-friendly thing to do might be to fix/restore them and sell/donate to a local charity institution?

[Telgin]

would the magnets from car speakers work
I just removed them from my car to replace and thay seem to be pretty strong magnets

Maybe.  I admit to not knowing much about speakers, but I assumed they use electromagnets, so you'd have to power them on for them to be magnetic.  Although I guess there could be a permanent magnet acting as the thing to attract or repel from when generating sound waves I guess.

Anyway, yeah, probably strong enough.  It doesn't take all that much.  Hard drives aren't as flimsy and easily damaged by accident as a floppy disk, but magnets are usually still pretty good at destroying the data on them.  I've heard of cases where the really strong rare earth magnets can permanently damage a drive, but I don't know how that would really be possible aside from deforming something in the drive.

[i2amroy]

A note, but you need to rub the magnets on the hard drive, not just set them on it, and you might need to do it for a little while before anything is actually done to affect it. (In my computer class we had some idiot put a fairly heavy-duty magnet on top of a hard drive and leave it there overnight, thing wasn't hurt at all since he just set it on top rather than rubbing it parallel to the drive).

Also this doesn't deal with the computer itself, but I'd advise against trying to do anything with the old CRT monitors, they can implode and then send shards of glass out if the screen gets too damaged, and barring that they have both radioactive material and usually some form of lead inside them. In fact they are dangerous enough that it's law that they need to be disposed of in special recycling centers, companies can get some fairly heavy fines if they throw away or burn them.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

would the magnets from car speakers work
I just removed them from my car to replace and thay seem to be pretty strong magnets

Maybe.  I admit to not knowing much about speakers, but I assumed they use electromagnets, so you'd have to power them on for them to be magnetic.  Although I guess there could be a permanent magnet acting as the thing to attract or repel from when generating sound waves I guess.

Anyway, yeah, probably strong enough.  It doesn't take all that much.  Hard drives aren't as flimsy and easily damaged by accident as a floppy disk, but magnets are usually still pretty good at destroying the data on them.  I've heard of cases where the really strong rare earth magnets can permanently damage a drive, but I don't know how that would really be possible aside from deforming something in the drive.

I dont think they need to be powered since i removed them they were able to stick to the door of the car without any help, they are about 3 1/2 inches in diameter

[alway]

Also this doesn't deal with the computer itself, but I'd advise against trying to do anything with the old CRT monitors, they can implode and then send shards of glass out if the screen gets too damaged, and barring that they have both radioactive material and usually some form of lead inside them. In fact they are dangerous enough that it's law that they need to be disposed of in special recycling centers, companies can get some fairly heavy fines if they throw away or burn them.

Oh right, I entirely forgot about this part. Yeah. Don't even try opening a CRT. Here's one exploding when punctured. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m04XfekeSP4
They're basically shrapnel grenades that will give you cancer.

[Cthulhu]

Dunno if it's been mentioned but if you're gonna be fucking around with CRTs and other old-style monitor/TV setups watch the capacitors.  The  discharge can be dangerous.

Oh and look, it was mentioned in the last post.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

They're just handing you a hundred desktops to play with? Sheesh. Forget the precious metals. Slap windows XP or linux on them and sell them on Ebay for twenty bucks a pop or summat. These things are really going to be worth more than the sum of their parts to a person without the recycling tools used on an industrial level. Perhaps you can learn this as part of your experiment.

Darik's boot and nuke (DBAN) is a tiny Linux operating system that you can load onto a CD or flash drive- flash drive is easier. Go look for pendrivelinux or universal usb installer to get a program to put DBAN onto a flash drive. Plug flash drive into tower, type "autonuke nousb" at the prompt, let it do its magic. Y'can even yank the flash drive once it starts and begin the next computer while the first is cooking. A public school is a government institute and as such they must take every effort to wipe information from hard drives or dispose of sensitive information safely. Simply wiping a magnet over the thing is not likely to suffice.

It's how we do it at university, anyways. Should be good practice or knowledge about computer management if that's something you'd ever want to look into.

They are giving them to me under teacher supervision with the promise that the first thing to happen is the destruction of the harddrive (physicaly not clearing the stuff on it but destroy it)

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Dunno if it's been mentioned but if you're gonna be fucking around with CRTs and other old-style monitor/TV setups watch the capacitors.  The  discharge can be dangerous.

Oh and look, it was mentioned in the last post.

No monitors just old dell computer towers

[Frumple]

They are giving them to me under teacher supervision with the promise that the first thing to happen is the destruction of the harddrive (physicaly not clearing the stuff on it but destroy it)

Jeez but that's just... wasteful. Hellishly wasteful. Re-purposing the things (The DBAN followed probably with a slim linux OS install, maybe a small suite of useful software) and, hell, giving them out as charity to poor families or something would be the way to go if they're still functional. Y'don't recycle still functioning computers, imo. Use the buggers 'till they break, then take whatever parts are still working and use those.

Or just mail the hard drives to me or somethin', I could use a few dozen spare hard drives. Lots of people could. Get a nice docking station for 'em, plenty of extra space~

... but yeah, have you considered consulting local recycling centers? They might have a better idea how to squeeze materials out of an old computer, and if you're really lucky you might even be able to talk one of 'em into sending someone to campus to show you the ropes. If y'needed extra moxie to convince the faculty, could sell it as some kind of seminar, get other folks in on it. Extra credit out the wazoo.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

They are giving them to me under teacher supervision with the promise that the first thing to happen is the destruction of the harddrive (physicaly not clearing the stuff on it but destroy it)

Jeez but that's just... wasteful. Hellishly wasteful. Re-purposing the things (The DBAN followed probably with a slim linux OS install, maybe a small suite of useful software) and, hell, giving them out as charity to poor families or something would be the way to go if they're still functional. Y'don't recycle still functioning computers, imo. Use the buggers 'till they break, then take whatever parts are still working and use those.

Or just mail the hard drives to me or somethin', I could use a few dozen spare hard drives. Lots of people could. Get a nice docking station for 'em, plenty of extra space~

... but yeah, have you considered consulting local recycling centers? They might have a better idea how to squeeze materials out of an old computer, and if you're really lucky you might even be able to talk one of 'em into sending someone to campus to show you the ropes. If y'needed extra moxie to convince the faculty, could sell it as some kind of seminar, get other folks in on it. Extra credit out the wazoo.

Considering that i may not be able to do this experiment effectivly without an industrial smelter i may tell the school to do just that and recycle it

The hard drives have to be wiped 

They are probably going to take them to the recycling center since thats what they did with the old printers and projectors

[SquatchHammer]

There are a few videos on Youtube about extracting materials from said units but I dont really trust any of it. Also for any wire stripping in large lengths, I would actually recommend a utility knife and cut down the center of the wire on both sides. Then pull the insulation apart, its soo much easier than using wire strippers. I still recommend to get a pair to do any electrical work. If you dont care about quality or lifespan, look in to Harbor Freight or any cheap versions of such. If you are like me and dont like fighting the tools, get a good pair to keep around because they are useful when needed.