Are shims worth it?

[grrl]

Are the Duron and Athlon shims for under the HSF really worth it? Does anyone have any firsthand experience with them?

 

[mrCide]

If you're afraid you're going to crack your core, sure.

 

[McCarthy]

After having put a chrome orb on and off a dozen times and the same with a FOP32, all on the same CPU, I'd say no. Yeah, I've chipped little slivers off it, been in a hurry a few times, still haven't managed to kill it.

If the shim's too thin it doesn't end up helping too much, though some. If it's too thick though...toasted CPU. I recently copied the idea from over at Bunker Mentality to make my own 'shims' out of epoxy, but that was more out of boredom than need.

--Mc

 

[lenjack]

did you try a search...this topic has been posted 0ver 200 time. Anyway, no, they are worthless.

 

[helloedchen]

im going to have to say no...they aren't. be careful and you'll never have to use a shim

 

[WarCon]

I know that my circumstances are not the most common, but I manage to seat my waterblock much better on my chip with a shim. There is no way I would trust a shim without checking it though. Always test and see if you are leaving a good footprint in thermal compound on your heatsink if you use a shim or you might suffer a burned core if the shim doesn't touch. Also most shims are metal and can short out the resistor or bridges on the chip, so I mount mine with two tiny dabs of superglue so it never moves.

Either I use too much or too little pressure (not sure have homemade holddown) or its off centered (don't think it can be with spring loading), but without the shim my temps raise as much as 10C over it not being on. I have tried both ways with 3 different chips (600 duron, 1ghz AVHA and 1ghz AXIAR) now to prove to myself I wasn't going crazy. I am pretty sure it just helps with the forces of my hoses and gravity and keeps the block on straight.

And if you make sure its the right size (see above), it does give you a little piece of mind about not chipping your core.

 

[mrCide]

hey warcon, what block are you using?

 

[WarCon]

I use the block that came with the AquaStealth kit. I seems to be nice and heavy, but I am sure it just runs like S channels. I hear good things about the DangerDen Maze II.

Thinking about making a different kind of block, but need a few bucks to do it, so I wait for my wife to loosen the purse strings..........

 

[mrCide]

hehe..

I'm currently using a basic slot block from cool computer.. ordered a maze2 for my socket a though..

 

[Cherub]

Are seat belts or life insurance worth it? It depends on your tolerable level of risks.