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Do I really need a "shim" for my CPU/Fan?

That's a pretty proc, and no, you don't. It's nice, I guess, but I've never used one and haven't cracked a core yet. I'm not superstitious, am I.

Oh, and some think that they're bad for heat reasons, though your specific proc won't have any, if you O/C, you might be better off without one.
 
I wouldn't waste your time with one. I've never cracked a core either - although I've never used the kind of HS's that screw into the motherboard either.

Still, I don't see how you could crack a core on one of those AMD chips. You would have to be pushing WAY to hard, IMO.
 
There are several styles of shims. Most aren't meant for the XP chips and can damage it by conducting electricity or by being too thick and the chip fries.

I wouldn't use one, haven't used one, and have never chipped a chip. Pun intended.😉
 
I think the shins are more for peltiers and watercooling, but not very sure.
Anyways, I havent used one.
I'm on my 4th (yes, 4TH!! CPU)
I crack those things like mad.
1st victim: 800 mghz T-Bird (An orignal WITH uncut bridges!)
2nd victim: 800 mghz Duron
3rd not-yet-victim: 1.1 Duron, still runnin strong
4th hopefully-wont-be-victim: 2200XP

Just be very careful, also, I think cracked cores were a much bigger problem when they first released the K7 chips. I think they made some minor changes which has pretty much taken care of that, although that doesnt mean you can just bang on it with a hammer.
 
no, it's very hard for a person to crack a core
i'm 15 and i've never cracked a cpu core eventhough i've reinstalled my heatsink several times
 
i actually like to use themand i do recommend them..........it would really suck to chip the corner on your core because you were off by a little bit........definitely good for the corners.......

heat isn't a problem with shims anyway....... how many fans do you have that normally blow onto the core itself? i would bet none as 99.99999999999% of the heat is supposed to be carried away by the heatsink anyway.......
 
Originally posted by: r0guenj
i actually like to use themand i do recommend them..........it would really suck to chip the corner on your core because you were off by a little bit........definitely good for the corners.......

heat isn't a problem with shims anyway....... how many fans do you have that normally blow onto the core itself? i would bet none as 99.99999999999% of the heat is supposed to be carried away by the heatsink anyway.......
Click to expand...

I think that the problem is that the shim causes the heatsink to be very close to, but not in contact with, the core.

I've had 3 T-Bird CPUs, one of which I used that huge Alpha 8054 screw-in heatsink, and have had no problems with cracking the core. I've been really rough with them, and nothing has happened.
 
the shims i have seen are even if a tiny bit lower than the core.........so i have not seen that problem with the shim not causing full contact......
 
Originally posted by: r0guenj
the shims i have seen are even if a tiny bit lower than the core.........so i have not seen that problem with the shim not causing full contact......
Click to expand...


AMD has released several versions of their chips, we all know that. XP Palimino and XP T-bred are differant heigths at the core. So are older T-Breds, there was a number of failures from using a shim meant for a classic T-Bred on an XP chip due to core differences.

Do a search here and in CPU's including the archived posts and all your questions should be answered.

 
Answer: No. Especially if your cheap, since a lot of the cheaper shims can actuially do more harm then good with improper milling.
 
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