Review: Coolerguys vs OCH Shims

Coolerguys vs OCH Shims

Shims head to head eh? hmm crushed cores, destroyed chips and broken hearts these guys are here to save the day? or maybe not as the case may be? the mystery goes on.

CPUfx and Coolerguys have seen a niche in the market and spotted the need for Non Conductive shims, The original copper shims were a great idea however there were some users out there (and lets face it this could happen to anyone) who had shorted out the chip by inadvertently placing the shim too close to some of the bridges, of course being copper which by its very nature is an excellent conductor, the shim helped to bridge an unwanted contact between the two bridges and phfttt one dead or dying chip :(  So the answer of course would be to make the shim Non Conductive and eliminate the possibility of any bridging, and that's what we have here today....

The Coolerguys Cool Shim

Coolerguys have even provided an online Install Guide for their Cool Shims, its recommended reading before you proceed to install it ;)  Basically there's a piece of masking on one side of the shim which has to be peeled off before you can use it, the side with the masking on is the bottom of the shim and is shinier than the topside.  The top of the shim also has a different texture to it so you will easily be able to tell the two apart.

Cool Shim Specs...

The placement of the Coolshim is perfect and the bridges are a suitable distance from the nearest edges of the shim and there's also little chance of a resistor getting caught and possibly crushed between the shim and heatsink.  The fact that this shim is TOTALLY Non Conductive is the one thing that is going to appeal to anyone wishing to protect their shiny new AMD core.  The thickness of the shim was Perfect and visually it looked like it was the exact same height as the core itself.

Testing

How do you test a shim? well since they are designed to protect the core when installing the heatsink, lets apply the heatsink ;)  The chip itself is a 1Ghz AJFA Thunderbird not very good at overclocking however it will serve as the test subject, the heatsink I'm using is the GlobalWin FOP38.  Yep that one with the really difficult clip, I've never actually had any problems in applying this cooler before so everything should run smoothly :)  

Results

The application of the heatsink required less care and attention than before because I knew that the shim was there to save the day, should my fingers slip or something ;)  As usual it was out with the screwdriver so that I can apply enough force to get the clip onto the ZIFF socket, my main concern is slipping the screwdriver and killing the motherboard.  Heatsink on and time to boot up and check the temps, checking the temperature is also going to tell me if the shim is too thick.  If the shim was too thick then the temperature of the chip would be higher even under idle conditions due to the distance between the core and the base of the heatsink, even the best thermal paste in the world couldn't cope with those conditions ;)

No problems here though, everything running smoothly and also piece of mind knowing that my core is safer than before.  Removing the heatsink is also made easier thanks to the shim.

CPUfx DTS440 Shim

The CPUfx DTS440 is definitely one of the coolest looking shims around, in anodized blue its kind of playing off the whole "blue is cool theme" and it works.  But hold on a minute? who is going to see the shim in the first place? exactly!

There is a very little margin for error on the CPUfx shim, the cutouts are precisely cut and therefore should be in the correct place however because the riser pads on the chip are never in the same place twice it all depends upon your specific chip.  On my spare 1Ghz Thunderbird the shim comes Very close to the resistor just below the core, this didn't worry me to much as the shim still sits flat on the surface of the chip.  With a little manoeuvring you can still find the perfect position for the shim.  Is the DTS440 non conductive? sadly no.  Our test sample showed that there was indeed some conduction going on, this was due to the anodizing process not covering the inside edges of the cutouts :(

I tested the shim several times to be sure and there was indeed some conduction getting through, this shouldn't have been a problem though as the areas that were affected didn't come close to any bridges on the chip and the actual chance for any conduction taking place across the bridges on the chip were very slim.  However I value my chip and wasn't going to take the chance, I covered the exposed areas using a permanent marker and then retested with the ohm's meter this time showing zero conductivity. 

Testing

Same process same chip, only this time I had to check the placement of the shim very carefully, checking that a resistor wasn't going to get caught between the shim and the heatsink.  Application of the shim Should be fairly obvious to most of us, however a few people have managed to get it wrong and destroy there chips :(  For the uninitiated out there, a visual check between the cutouts of the shim and the placement of the resistors and bridges on the chip should reveal which way the shim goes on?  Obviously you don't want to get any of the small resistors under the shim as this will then come between the shim and heatsink, and with the force from the heatsink the resistors will be crushed or your chip will burn out pretty quick.

Results

Once again everything went without a hitch, temps were normal so the thickness of the DTS440 was spot on.  "It does exactly what it says on the tin"

Conclusions

A lot of sites that have reviewed shims in the past have also mentioned that they may help reduce the temperatures of your chip.  The main aim of these shims is to protect your fragile core and that's it!  I did however monitor my temps (something of a habit nowadays) and did not see any difference whilst using these shims, the main thing was that I knew they were protecting the core whilst I was installing the dreaded FOP38 heatsink which I'm sure by now you've all heard about the high forces required to close the clip on them.  What it boils down to at the end of the day is "are these shims going to protect my core?".

Short answer is Yes they will, Long answer comes in two parts:

Part One. CoolerGuys Cool Shim

This is the safest bet for anyone concerned with the whole conductivity issue, being that the material it's made from is 100% Non Conductive.  The placement of the cutouts is PERFECT even taking into account that the rubber/foam risers will not always be in the same place every time.  Thickness of the shim was also just right, although this wouldn't be the case if the masking tape had been left in position before application.

Part Two. CPUfx DTS440

Looks aren't everything and sometimes they can come at a high cost, in this case the shim was not "Non Conductive".  Because CPUfx have chosen to use an anodizing process to make the shim Non Conductive then there will be some shims that slip through without getting a full coating.  Also the precise tolerances of the cutouts will make it hard to fit for some chips out there, although with a little care and attention this can be resolved quite easily.

So which one do I recommend?  I would choose (and always will) The CoolerGuys Cool Shim, main reasons being that this is the only truly 100% Non Conductive shim on the market to date and there is also more leeway in the cutouts. 

A thank you to Coolerguys and CPUfx for providing the samples