Is a Shim worth it?

[pdelre]

Or is it just for disapating the heat correctly over a crappy HS?

 

[tilepusher]

Hey P,

A shin is for the use of really heavy/big HSF's. The idea is for the shin to "Protect" the CPU from too much pressure from the installation of the HSF or High spring tension of the HSF..........but more then a few people did not line up the shin correctly & the very thing the shin was supposed to protect, in fact caused damage to the CPU core. Or with the copper shins, they can short out the CPU(I don't know about this one). It will not help your HSF in cooling! A lot of people have found out the hard way, if you are not very careful while installing the HSF & shin, you can very easily damage your CPU.

So no, a shin is worthless.

Peace Out...........tile

It would be nice if everyone gave too much information about their system & problems.

 

[pdelre]

Ahh, I see now. Thanks. I saw that they were mostly copper and suspected that it was used for heat dispersion(sp?). Thanks again.

 

[Lonemagi]

Picked one up myself, made of mica. It gave me a bit more confidence in my instalation of a big swiftec coper heatsink, but when I installed it wrong, it caused my cpu to not contact the heatsink correctly, and was lightly toasted. So now it just sits there with my burnt out XP. My advice, Install the heatsink following the instructions carefully. Use a lug on the end of a screwdriver to hook onto those clip tabs, instead of a flathead screwdriver. And if the heasink is real large, remove it when you need to travel with your comp ( a pain for a lan party, but cheaper than a crackedcore). Also, look for heatsinks with the spring/screw tesion clips, that attach to all six of the socket clips. Much nicer to install, and less force is needed to attach.

That, and I have heard the possibility of the shim KEEPING in heat, thus causing a new problem.

Once I thought, then I <A HREF="http://www.warroom.com" target="_new">learned</A>

 

[HonestJhon]

I have a shim on my cpu...
athlon 900 (overclocked HARDWARE to 1.07ghz, pencil trick, and cut bridges), and i have a thermaltake copper shim...
they are good...doesnt seem to effect my heat at ALL...
either way...
AND, it only cost me like 4.99...
its like cheap, onetime insurance...
but, as with EVERYTHING, you have to make sure that it is good, as in HIGHQUALITY, and flat, and defect free BEFORE you install it...like here is what i did before i put the shim in.
i put a piece of NONCONDUCTIVE foam on my desk. i set my processor on that.
then i took the shim, and i put it down on a flat piece of glass. just to make sure it was flat. and yeah, it was.
then i checked the installation instructions on thermaltakes website. <A HREF="http://www.thermaltake.com/support/installations/installcoppershim.htm" target="_new">here</A>.
then i removed the blue plastic film from the shim, and made sure there was none left. then i set it on the cpu, in the direction that they show on their site. i looked at it from the side, to make sure that it wasnt thicker than the cpu core, and that it wasnt too thin...meaning that it would actually prevent cpu core breakage.
all seemed well, so i put it in my computer.
put thermalgrease on the core first of course, then put the heatsink on, and booted up my computer...
so problems.
all has been well, and my core has yet to chip...KNOCK ON WOOD!
but, i think that i am safe, because i have my shim in there...
BUT, if you dont move your computer around much, there really isnt much NEED for a shim, it is just an extra little bit of "insurance"...
so is it worth it? well, that depends.
does it dissipate heat? i dont think it helps much...or hurts much...
i think it just sits there...
for me, since i move my computer a LOT....and there are MANY chances that it could get bumped...i think that it is a good idea...since i didnt want to chuck the change for a motherboard mounted heatsink. like if my computer is in the trunk of a car, and gets bumped around....why would i risk it? also, i dont know how good it is to keep removing the heatsink and then putting it back on...
you risk the chance of something getting inbetween the heatsink and the cpu core. i would rather just LEAVE IT ON, with the arctic silver properly applied, and uncontaminated...
but that is just me....


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[papasmurf]

I agree, a shim is just as likely to destroy a processor as it is to prevent it from being cracked, and it does nothing for heat conduction, in fact a copper shim can actualy trap heat inside of it next to the core causing a burn.

Introducing Tapeworms! The new big thing for weight loss!

 

[HonestJhon]

mine hasnt burned yet...and it is overclocked.
but i dunno.


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[Lonemagi]

Mine burned, but not because of the shim, just an improperly mounted heatsink... But thats my dumb fault.

Once I thought, then I <A HREF="http://www.warroom.com" target="_new">learned</A>