ThermalPhobia Copper Shims

Company: ThemalPhobia
Product: AMD & Intel Copper Shims
Street Price: $13-$15 USD
Date Reviewed: April 25, 2001
Reviewed By: Jason Rabel

Proper Measurement:

To the naked eye these shims look great, but how do they measure up? Well, to determine the proper height of a shim, one can simply refer to AMD & Intel technical documentation to find the specifications for core height. These heights are given in a certain tolerance range, and since we are talking thousandths of an inch, these copper shims must meet the same stringent tolerances.

To measure the thickness of the shims I used my dial caliper, which is accurate up to .001" (one thousandth of an inch). I measured the shims in several spots to check for consistency in thickness, with hopes being that all measurements would be the same. The proper thickness for the copper shims would hopefully be below the average height for each CPU, but even better would be if they were a little thinner than the minimum core height, just to be on the safe side.

(AMD Shim Measurement On The Left, Intel Shim On The Right)

You can find the specifications for the CPU's in public datasheets available on the Intel & AMD web sites. The specifications are given in a minimum and maximum tolerance, however looking for an exact target number I took the average of the two guessing that is the number that production shoots for. Note that Intel has a narrower tolerance range, half that of AMD, but the average still comes out within two thousandths of an inch.

So now that we have a baseline to compare against, which we will say is .033" for Intel and .031" for AMD, we can measure the thickness of the copper shims to see how they compare.

The AMD shim was .028" thick, which seems to be quite acceptable. I had no problems using the shim, but even after measuring I still checked to make sure the heat sink was making good contact. To check if a heat sink is making good contact really just boils down to plain old common sense. I simply applied my thermal grease to the CPU core, mounted the heat sink, then took it off carefully to check the core impression on the bottom of the heat sink.

The Intel shim was .024" thick, which at first seemed like it would be too thin and might slide around (like the CPUFX Intel shim did). However after mounting the heat sink, it fit perfect and was very secure. I again checked to make sure the heat sink was indeed making good contact with the core.

To compare the numbers to our previous shims that have been reviewed, here's a chart below:

Conclusion:

In conclusion I can honestly say that the ThermalPhobia shims are top-notch quality. Since they are copper, please be careful because they are electrically conductive. On the AMD CPU you do not want the shim to be touching any of the resistors or bridges because it could short them out and do permanent damage to your CPU. However, properly used, a copper shim can safely protect your CPU from chipping or cracking (especially if you are clumsy or if you take your heat sink off and on a lot).

Pros:
  High Quality / Professional Grade
  Exact Tolerances
  Gold Flashed Variety (Intel Only)

Cons:
  Electrically Conductive

Rating:
  For The Average User: 8 / 10
  For The Extreme Overclocker: 9 / 10

*Contest* *Contest* *Contest* *Contest* *Contest*

Now that you have read about the shims, you can enter our contest. We are giving away FIVE ThermalPhobia shims (you choose which one you want). All you have to do is head over to our contest page and fill out the simple little form. Only one entry per day per email, duplicate entries in the same day will be deleted. Check out the contest page for complete details.

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