shim necessary for SI-97?

Towermax · Post by **Towermax** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:39 am

I just bought a Thermalright SI-97 for socket A from an SPCR member. However, there is no CPU shim included.

Thermalright packages a shim with this HSF, but is it really necessary?

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:55 am

Thermalright SI-97 for socket A weights: 280g without fan. Size is not critical, however, the HSF base is small and almost all weight is concentrated on the core, unlike with regular sink, which also takes old XP's / Durons etc four cushions on corners. This is what I've heard and read when using SI-97 with Socket A, even weight is not issue, SI-97 does put some stress directly on core.

At least I would recomend you to get shim, just in case. But I have no first hand experience from SI-97 on socket A. I have 2 socket A computers and I've put shims both of them. Better safe than sorry when you're dealing possibility of core crushing.

Kremmit · Post by **Kremmit** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:29 pm

I used the shim on mine. The heatsink base rests primarily on the cpu core, and on about half of each of the little black corner pads. It did not appear to be resting on the shim much at all. You could probably get away with skipping the shim as long as you still have all 4 of your corner pads.

Towermax · Post by **Towermax** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:37 pm

Thanks to all for their advice.

I emailed Thermalright tech support about the shim for the SI-97. Here's their response:

"You can use it without the shim as you seem to know what you are doing. The shim was included because many users don't!! "

That seems to be the definitive statement on this topic.

Kremmit · Post by **Kremmit** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:57 pm

Towermax wrote:Thanks to all for their advice.

I emailed Thermalright tech support about the shim for the SI-97. Here's their response:

"You can use it without the shim as you seem to know what you are doing. The shim was included because many users don't!! "

That seems to be the definitive statement on this topic.

That's the definative statement on lots of topics.