Is The AMD Copper Shim Really Needed?

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Kitt2003

Limp Gawd
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Dec 24, 2003
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I just built my brother a budget shuttle with an AMD 2400 and right as I was finishing up and putting the cover back on, I realized I forgot to put on the copper shim. My friend said the shim was only there to protect the CPU from cracking if the heatsink were to be put on with uneven pressure.

The shuttle has been running fine for a week now, though temps are pretty high, 48C idle. The video card and sound card are both onboard so there's not that much heat being made. Should I go back and put the copper shim over the CPU or am I fine without it? Is that why temps are so high?

Thanks in advance.
 
It used to be a lot more necessary before the organic packaging on the chip, but now, it's just a matter of personal comfort. I use it, but that's because I take my heatsink (or in this case, my ICE) off and put it back on way too often when I do it to want to worry about it.
 
I took mine off. If you notice the shim is sort of a blue color at first, but copper isn't blue.... The blue tint is a piece of protective plastic that they put on the shim and I failed to realize this. After using my computer for a few months the plastic melted to the shim and i couldnt remove it so i just threw the whole shim out. No shim for me and my temps are cooler :) .
 
Hossein! Did you try messin with the fan speed controller in the bios? I jus read the stock fan is a lil lame too, you could try a different one. Is Payams room have AC?
 
Sup homeslice! Yea, the fan speed's default is ultra-low, about 1500rpm with idle temps of 48-49C. I brought it up to the highest speeds and temps dropped about 5 degrees, but it's way too loud going at 4500rpm (something around there.) His room is pretty cool all the time and with hard wood floors he doesn't have to worry that much, so the room temp isn't the problem.

If I wanna find a replacement for the stock fan, would a normal 120mm (maybe it's 80mm) that I would buy for a normal tower do fine? He could probably spit out another 15 bucks for a powerful and quiet fan if it means he can run his CPU at stock speeds.
 
ScorpionV said:
I took mine off. If you notice the shim is sort of a blue color at first, but copper isn't blue.... The blue tint is a piece of protective plastic that they put on the shim and I failed to realize this. After using my computer for a few months the plastic melted to the shim and i couldnt remove it so i just threw the whole shim out. No shim for me and my temps are cooler :) .
Click to expand...

:eek:
Glad to see that didnt turn into a horror story.

When i put my SN45G together I barely saw the plastic film.

Im impressed that it didnt kill your processor.

I have no idea why they would even put a plastic film over the shim but they did.
 
foofighter06 said:
:

I have no idea why they would even put a plastic film over the shim but they did.
Click to expand...

They do that because copper tarnishes and they want to keep it shiny for both preformance and appearance.
 
The shim is just so you don't crush the actual die when you put your heatsink on.
 
when i first went amd i got one of those nonconducting ones made of mica or some thing and i put it on followed all the directions but failed to realize that the heat sink i had wasnt flat on the bottom except the center where the die goes and the heatsink because the shim didnt touch the die and poof out came the smoke of a brand new retail box axia 1.2 tbird

luckily it was under warentee and 1 day later i had a new axia 1.2 in my pc working like a champ never agian will i bother with a shim i also them immediately with out burning it in cranked it up to the 266 fsb speed when it was a 200 chip it burned it self in and liked the speed from then on and ran for 2 years with out a hiccup then the mobo had its northbridge go bad and abit was hit up for a 25 dollar repair while i got a 400$ upgrade with ddr 2400+ and a epox 8k3a+ that was about 2 and a half years ago
 
you only need a shim if you also have to wear a helmet on the bus.

seriously, ive cracked my share of cores but none wouldve been prevented by having a shim.
 
foofighter06 said:
:eek:
Glad to see that didnt turn into a horror story.

When i put my SN45G together I barely saw the plastic film.

Im impressed that it didnt kill your processor.

I have no idea why they would even put a plastic film over the shim but they did.
Click to expand...



I forgot to remove the plastic when I installed the shim on a SN45G system I built for a friend.

Thermal protection engaged and the CPU was saved.
 
i didn't see mine until after i put my ice on.. i didn't feel like redoing my artic silver job, so it is still sitting in the box..

funny thing is i read this post before i built my shuttle (seeing how it is a month old) and still forgot about the shim..
 
bsoft said:
I forgot to remove the plastic when I installed the shim on a SN45G system I built for a friend.

Thermal protection engaged and the CPU was saved.
Click to expand...

Sweet.

Nice to know things went according to plan.

I think an anodized shim would be a lil' less of a hassle, but either way works i suppose. :D
 
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