Introduction
Have you ever crushed a Duron/Thunderbird processor when installing a heatsink?
What about frying your new processor due to the shim shorting some bridges on the top of the CPU?
Maybe you've never done any of these, but are worried that you may?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions then this product is for you. The new DTS440 Shim from CPUfx, and available locally from CoolPC Australia is the latest in the shim craze, and has just hit the Australian shores. I wont delve into huge detail about this shim, as its job is pretty well documented on the web. A shims main job is to provide protection against core-crushing while installing/removing heatsinks. This is especially helpfull to AMD cpu's, as they are prone to chipping/crushing. Behold, the CPUfx DTS440 Shim...
The Shim, In-Depth
Thats right people, the DTS440 shim is Blue, you gotta love it :). The process of "Anodizing" aluminum or titanium oxidizes the surface several microns thick and this allows for a very strong shell to encapsulate the metal, further ensuring the shim will protect the cpu well. Apart from being ultra strong, this shim is just plain sexy. While the shim may not be made out of copper like some of its competitors, this isnt a problem, as the effect of a shim on cooling is negligable at that. In fact, there is one main advantage to this shim against its competitors, it is 100% non electrically conductive. This means that in the case of accidental bridge shorting, your cpu will be fine (although the shim has cutouts for all the bridges so this shouldnt be a problem anyway).
See, non-conductive :). Note, the glow you see on the bulb is actually the glare on the underside of the bulb from my flourescent light, NOT the globe itself.
Installation
Installation of this shim was a breeze. Simply remove the heatsink, place the shim on, re-apply thermal grease, and replace the heatsink (safely). I am willing to bet that almost enyone could complete this task correctly, and provided they put the shim on the right way around, nothing can go wrong.
Conclusion
Overall I believe this shim would be a great addition to any hardware freak/overclockers system, which would prevent them from the possible destruction of their new cpu.
This Shim scores a 10/10
Id like to thank CoolPC Australia for supplying this review sample.
