Printed wiring boards(PWBs) of the obsolete computers are composed of various organic and inorganic compounds as well as metals and alloys. As convinced that the valuable metals obtained from the PWBs are effectively utilized as secondary resources when recovered by economical methods, in this study, an investigation for characterizing the physical separation techniques is conducted. For the recovery of them, the sockets and chips dismantled from PWBs by scraping and residual resin boards are subjected to the appropriate separation processes according to the physical properties of each part. In the case of crushed socket scraps size ranged from -2.36 mm to +1.18 mm, approximately 97 wt% of the product obtained by magnetic separation consists of metallic compounds. In the case of chip scraps, 97% of Fe-Ni alloy and 95% of Cu metal are recovered by the combined process of air classification and dry magnetic separation in the size range from -2.36 mm to +0.15 mm. Ball milling is adopted in order to improve the removal efficiency of the thin-printed metallic materials on the residual resin boards and approximately 77% of Cu metal is recovered by zigzag separation after ball milling.