How fragile is the T-bird core?

Help a beginner out here. I built my own machine before but never an AMD machine.

Last night, I was trying to install T-bird 1.33 AVIA on my Koolance case. Damn CPU waterblock wont fit! The clamp that came with the case seems too small for MSI K7 Master socket. I'm trying to contact Koolance for this problem but anyway, I was pressing the waterblock down pretty hard that I was slightly bending the motherboard. Hope this doesn't damage the mobo. I think CPU is okay at this point since I had a shim on it. But with the shim on, Arctic Silver I put on the CPU core wasn't even touching the waterblock. So I took the shim off to see if the shim is too thick. I still couldn't get it on but too scared to apply any more pressure. But this time, I can see that some of the Arctic Silver was transfered to the surface of waterblock. It was non-conductive shim from coolerguys.com Time to give them a call and *****.

My question... how much pressure can the core take? I'm worried if I've damaged either the CPU or the mobo. I think I applied enough pressure to insert a typical PCI card into slot with the shim off. This wouldn't damage the core... would it?

I still think the clip is too small even with the shim off.

--BrianC

Probably not but I wouldnt put much more pressure than that on it. Those cores are pretty fragile. I also wouldnt bend the MoBo cause thos traces can break and that would kill the MoBo.

FRAGILE! very easy to chip if you get em just right, makes a nice sound too. not like the coppermines, jack hammer couldn't ding em.

All i here about how fragile the cores are however I put hella amount of force to put my clip on i couldn't do it with my hands i needed pliars i guess i'm just lucky though

Most of the retainers require an almost ridiculous amount of force to fasten. The core can take a lot of pressure if it is applied absolutely(yes, I know this is not possible) parallel to the heatsink base.

It is movement that is destructive. I killed my first Duron in this manner. Absolutely no rocking, or discernible movement when installing or uninstalling wins the day. Here's a link to a downloadable file about the care and feeding of Socket-A dies : http://www1.amd.com/athlon/config the page also has a lot of other good Socket-A information.

T

Buy a duron and "figure" it out first. Please don't kill that sweet chip! be careful and never apply uneven presure.

Interesting point about that shim though. I purchased one recently and have not yet used it. Can you post the response you get back from the vendor?

I know that it is supposed to fit already, but depending on how far it doesnt fit by, you coud try and lapp/sand the shim till it is thin enough to touch the chip-it couldn't hurt to have a really greatly sanded shim-and then ou wouldnt have to wait for the new one. Jst my 2 cents

NO, you don't wanna lap the shim from the Coolerguys.com. It's not metal and there are some fibers underneath the coating.

Coolerguys told me that there's a masking on the bottom side of the shim which they told me to peel off. No... there's no masking. I ended up peeling the clear coating off the actual shim and damaged the corner. They said they'll just send me a new one.

The reason why the water block didn't touch the core was because of the crappy waterblock from Koolance. Not the shim. Surface of the water block was uneven and the block itself was thicker than it should've been. And on top of that, water is leaking from the video card waterblock. Koolance is recalling all the cases that has leaks and only offering refunds. No exchange. I don't think I damaged any of my parts but at least they did offer to replace any of my damaged parts if there's any.

--BrianC