Shim?

[Darcadian V1]

I flicked through a comp mag today and found a section on installing an AMD chip. When i looked at the pics i noticed that they were using a strange copper plate that fitted over the processor. They called it a shim.
Whats it for? ive never seen one before and they said that one should be used but didnt say why. :sick:

 

[Addis]

Its a small metal cover that protects the CPU being damaged by large and heavy heatsinks. I've never used one myself but they're a good idea if you want a monster HSF.

 

[Big B]

Now, you gotta be careful to get one that's made for your CPU and that it's anodized. Basically, the metal is doctored up so that it doesn't conduct electricity. You can have all sorts of fun if the shim isn't and connects a couple of bridges that shouldn't be.

With the fragile Thunderbird cores, this was more of a necessity, but AMD fixed it in subsequent core releases.

 

[ninja fetus]

I've heard some bad stories about un anodized shims :( crazy idiots!