Gold-fingered RAM

Look at the edge, not the chips. Gold edge = $50/lb. Dull grey tin/silver edge (a lot of SDRAM and some DDR) = $20/lb. And heat spreaders on = $18/lb, so pull them.

Au 0.3–0.6 g/lbAg 0.5–2 g/lbPd 0.01–0.05 g/lb

eBay typical$55–76per lb

Refiner pays$50per lb

Metal in it$62.3per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencehighof the yield figures

How to spot it

DIMM/SODIMM sticks. Older gold-cap EDO/FPM/SIMM with ceramic or gold-lid DIP chips are 2–3× richer than modern DDR.

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Gold	0.3–0.6 g/lb	0.010–0.020 g per stick; older gold-cap EDO/FPM 0.8–1.5 g/lb
Silver	0.5–2 g/lb	solder + MLCC
Palladium	0.01–0.05 g/lb	MLCC

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $62.3 per pound of contained metal — Gold 0.45 g = $58.7, Silver 1.2 g = $2.28, Palladium 0.03 g = $1.24. A refiner paying $50 returns about 80% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Working temperature: Cold

Pry the heat spreaders off with a flathead — they're usually clipped or on thermal tape. The fingers alone are about half the stick's gold in 5% of the weight, so shear them if you're selling fingers separately.

Before you scrap it

Tested ECC/RDIMM server RAM: $12–45 per 16/32 GB stick versus about $2.50 as scrap. Anything DDR4 ECC deserves a memtest before it hits the bucket.

The common trap

Mixed RAM pays $6/lb versus $50/lb for sorted gold-edge. Sorting is worth more than volume here, more than in any other category.

Questions

How much gold is in gold-fingered ram?

Gold: 0.3–0.6 g/lb. Silver: 0.5–2 g/lb. Palladium: 0.01–0.05 g/lb. At current spot that is about $62.3 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify gold-fingered ram?

Look at the edge, not the chips. Gold edge = $50/lb. Dull grey tin/silver edge (a lot of SDRAM and some DDR) = $20/lb. And heat spreaders on = $18/lb , so pull them.

How do you remove gold-fingered ram safely?

Is gold-fingered ram worth more working than as scrap?

Tested ECC/RDIMM server RAM: $12–45 per 16/32 GB stick versus about $2.50 as scrap. Anything DDR4 ECC deserves a memtest before it hits the bucket.

Related in Connectors & pins

Gold fingers (trimmed) Connectors & pins · $225–290/lb Au 2.0–3.0 g/lbBase Cu S Gold-plated connectors Connectors & pins · $113–136/lb Au 0.3–1.0 g/lb wholeBase brass A Gold-plated pins Connectors & pins · $180–280/lb Au 0.7–1.5 g/lb mixedBase brass A RF Coaxial Connectors (SMA/N/BNC/TNC) Connectors & pins · $15–35/lb Au 0.10–0.40 g/lb (SMA); 0.01–0.05 g/lb (N/BNC)Cu ~190 g/lbAg trace B Silver-Plated Copper Wire & Coax Connectors & pins · $8–25/lb Ag 2.8–6.8 g/lb as-received; 5.7–11.3 g/lb stripped conductorCu ~230 g/lbBase 40–55% PTFE/FEP B CPU socket (ZIF PGA / LGA) Connectors & pins · $15–35/lb Au 0.10–0.30 g/lb wholeBase phosphor bronze C

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