[Newbie Q] What are shim and thermal pad?

[ahmoo]

what are they use for??? kinda mix up ~~~pls help!!

thanx~

 

[tlaughrey]

A lot of heatsinks come with a thermal pad stuck to them. When you put the heatsink on your CPU, the thermal pad fills in any air gaps between the heatsink and the processor, thus providing better cooling.

A shim is a piece of metal you put on top of your CPU to prevent damage to the CPU when you are attaching the heatsink. It normally does not provide any additional cooling benefit. Sometimes a shim can prevent good contact between the heatsink and processor, resulting in damage to the processor from overheating. My personal opinion is that if you're careful, you don't need a shim and are better off without one.

<i>Money talks. Mine always likes to say "goodbye." </i>

 

[jihiggs]

i disagree about being better off without a shim, an inexpirience user will find it very difficult to attatch a heatsink, frustration causes caution to fade and increases the risk of chiping the core. with a shim this is not a problem. i think it even makes it easyer to attatch, because you dont have to fight with it rocking on the core.

i went to the tomshardware forums and all i got was this lousy signature.

 

[ahmoo]

what kind of shim would be better then? conductive or non-conductive??

 

[jihiggs]

as long as its not touching the contacts on the processor it doesnt really matter. i got the thermal take shim from newegg for 5 bucks. i was already spending 400 so i figured what the hell.

i went to the tomshardware forums and all i got was this lousy signature.

 

[tlaughrey]

It's a matter of opinion. I've heard plenty of stories from people where the shim wasn't aligned quite right and they crushed their CPU when they put their HSF on. Or the shim was too high and therefore their HSF didn't make good contact with the CPU and it ended up frying. Regardless, if you're careful and follow instructions, whether you use a shim or not, you should be okay.

<i>Money talks. Mine always likes to say "goodbye." </i>

 

[jihiggs]

yea, i was worried most about the shim being too thick, but i put it on and eyeballed it, the shim is a hair thiner than the core, i mean litteraly the width of a hair. it could keep the hsf from cotacting the core in the base was warped or poorly milled.

i went to the tomshardware forums and all i got was this lousy signature.