This shim appears to be very well made. They are cut with a laser to ensure a precise fit and are made in America. The thing is ugly but once it is installed you will never see it so the looks really don't matter.

• Meets the UL-64 Standard
• Tempurater Randge of -50 to +1200 Farenheit
• Tensile Strengh Rigid (Excellent)
• Won't hold heat next to core like a copper shim
• Cool marble green color
• Excellent electrical insulator
• Made from Phlogoctite Mica

I'll start off by saying what the shim doesn't do. It doesn't do anything good or bad for cooling but that is ok because it was not intended to. The shim is there to help stabalize the heatsink when you are mounting it. Without a shim when you are trying to hook the clips from the heatsink to the socket on the mother board it is very easy to rock the heatsink back and forth. This in turn can cause the CPU core to crack or chip. Hey for under $10 the shim is a cheap insurance policy to prevent this from happening to you.

Installing the shim is pretty much a no brainer. Just make sure that the hole cut in the shim for the L1 and L3 bridges is orientated over the bridges, and that the shim is sitting flush on the CPU. The shim should not wobble or rock on the CPU at all. Now mount your heatsink. The shim give the heatsink a much more stable feel and helps protect the delicate CPU core. Hey we have all heard and read many stories about damaged CPU's from mounting the heatsink. With the low cost of the shim and the protection it provides for the core it makes good sense to use one. Just make sure that you get a NON-CONDUCTIVE one. The only thing that detracts from this shim is it's ugly apperance which really is a mute point anyway.

Thanks goes out to CrazyPC for supplying us with this shim for review and they have this shim at a super bargain price of $8.95. Direct link to the $8.95 non-conductive shim. They also have one for the AMD TBird/Duron for $5.95. Made of the same material as the.