Computer Wire

You have described things that are not "wire". Most "wires" are mostly copper.

"White copper"? Never heard of that. Maybe it's tinned copper?

From:

All disks contain platinum

Information storage requirements continue to expand at rapid rates, fuelled by the growing use of computers for video and audio applications. Today, all hard disks contain platinum in their magnetic layers, compared with around 50 per cent in 1997. The proportion of platinum in the magnetic alloy has been increasing steadily over time, from less than 10 per cent five years ago to over 35 per cent, on average, today.

I had not heard of white copper until recently but have not verified its existence. I have taken apart a lot of transformers and some contain what appears to be aluminum wire coated with a copper colored substance. I have also come across copper wire coated with what appears to be silver (?) I do a lot of recycling and being able to identify different metals is of benefit to us all. So I am trying to cut through the various reports I am getting to get a more clear idea of what materials are really in computers as far as metals. In this forum I think I have a much better chance of finding the truth. Thank you.

White copper? Never heard of it.

Aluminum wire is probably coated with insulation of some type. Varnish, probably, maybe a polymer.

Copper wire coated with silver is probably copper wire tinned (coated) with solder.

There are a whole variety of different metals found in a computer. Most of the wires are copper. The capacitors will contain aluminum, copper and the rare earth metal tantalum. The chassis can be steel, aluminum or even the zinc based pot metal. Some of the connectors may have very thin gold or silver cladding. As Lyn pointed out the hard discs will likely have a thin platinum coating. The ferrite cores will have iron and an interesting assortment of rare earth metals trapped inside a ceramic substrate. These will be difficult if not impossible to profitably extract but they're there none the less. Traditional E block transformers can still be found in many power supplies. These typically have copper wires around a steel laminate core.

Thank you, I did find a list of materials used in computers at goldrefinersforum, I tried to provide the link but no luck. Thanks everyone.