Shims? Who needs one?

[Superman53142]

What exactly does a shim do and who needs one? I've never had one but I've seen people asking if they need a shim for a certain setup. I'm looking into getting a 1.33Ghz with a Thermalright SK-6. Would it be wise to use a shim?

[Sharp]

Shims are used for additional protection of the core. They aren't required but are reccomended. I personally don't use one because with my mounting mechanism [Maze 2] it's easy to apply even pressure to the core and shims raise my temps by a degree. For a normal HSF I would reccomend a shim though as it is hard to apply even pressure while mounting it.

[UnseenMenace]

I most certainly do not recommend a shim and neither do AMD as they effect the cooling of the CPU.
Conductive shims can also cause problems if they cross the CPU bridges so if you decide to get one, ensure that it is non conductive.
I also believe that a shim creates a false sence of security when installing a hsf and as such you may take less care, I remove my FOP32 regularly from my shim-less Duron and have not cracked the core or damaged the CPU yet and therefore come to the conclusion that the people who gain most from shims are the people selling them.

[Wa11y]

I've played around with a couple of different processors and HSF, and I've never used a shim, and never cracked a core. All you have to do is pay attention to what you're doing, and you'll be fine. I see no reason to use shims at all. As far as I can tell, they're more trouble than they're worth. If you use one too thick, your HSF won't sit on your core, and it'll burn up, if you use a conductive shim, you'll connect your bridges, and fry your processor. Don't bother with them. Just stay focused on what you're doing, and you'll be fine.

[Duan de la Duron]

What about on a lan Box? I've already chipped 1 core coming home from a lan party, and I was pretty gentle with it. Would a good non-conductive shim help protect the core from excessive bumpage.

[CSaddict]

I've found shims more trouble than they are worth. Build heat and dont help much.