Non-conductive Shim

[Major_Cortex]

Next week I'm purchasing 1.4 Athlon c/w Super Orb or Thermal Take 6I31C, briefly seeing that a shim helps in despersing heat over a wider area but your fingers are pointing towards non-conductive material.

What do you recommend?

Is copper good but risky?

[asmodean]

It actually doesn't do nothing much to temperatures, that shim. The difference is about 1F, so that doesn't amount to anything.
The non-conductive ones are usually copper too, they're just painted with a non-conductive paint. I think.

DO NOT buy any Orbs. They SUCK. And hard. They're simply not good enough for >1g processors. Do a search on Orb in this forum, that'll show you the common opinion about them.

[UnseenMenace]

Shims actually increase tempratures slightly, there a test report on the front of overclockers.com about this very matter, the only advantage of a shim is that it reduced the chance of cracking the CPU core which the ORB is know for doing. The only reason people use the non-conductive shims in preference is that the conductive ones can damage the CPU if it crosses the bridges.

I personally suggest taking care of fitting a hsf instead of using a shim

[guppie]

So, is all that crap on the Thermaltake web site just for looks and based on theory? The copper shim sounds like a great concept, but it doens't do crap? What the hell do they even advertise that crap for? On another note, what do you think about the Volcano II HSF unit? I haven't done a search on this forum about it yet, but I'm doing it next... Just thought I'd get your opinions. (Should we stay away from Thermaltake altogether?) I am looking for a cost effective cooling solution for AMD 1GHz 266 on IWILL

[jeff_harrison_344]

The VolcanoII is so so, not high end, but definately a lot better than the Orbs. I would get a FOP32-1 if I wre you. Not a high price and a nice cooler indeed.

[William]

most nonconductive shims are not made of copper. They are made of something weird. They only affects temps at most by one degree, but even out the way a heatsink sits on the core, and greatly reduce the chances of cracking it. The prob with most nonconditve shims is that they are slightly compressible, but this is not a huge deal at all. For $10, it is a very good insurance policy. I use ones on my celey and my Duron, and I have no trouble using a fop38 with it. I would get at least a FOP 32-1 for that CPU, if not something better. If you want the best hsf, get the Swiftech 462-A which is $80. The Millenium Glaciator is excellent for $40. A ThermoEngine is less risky hsf using a clip because its much lighter and gives excellent numbers for $35 assuming you use a delta. But no orbs, they are not that good, especially for a hsf that large, and Volcano II will do, but not for overclocking that puppy.