Today we bring you the "TweakMonster" Copper Spacers. Yes, you all have heard of them, there are several makes and models out there, and we have used many, but Tweak's have to be the best spacer available today for both the AMD and Intel CPU's alike. Let's not waste any time here and checkout a few pics of these here spacers.
Copper AMD CPU Spacer
Manufacturer: TweakMonster
Product Price: Various, between 8$ and 10$
Available for purchase? Yes, at various online vendors
Overview: The first thing your gonna notice about these copper spacers is how clean and polished they are coming straight from the Tweak Factory, so-to speak. You can tell this is a quality item right off the get go. One thing we really like about the AMD model is how well it is suited to fit over the little cushioned feet, so as to keep the spacer in place. The last thing you need is that spacer sliding around touching your memory and burning up your chip. You've probably seen some other models of CPU spacers on the market that do not have this, as seen below.
Not pretty
Now I'm not saying you'll have bad luck with a spacer such as the above. I'm just saying we here at the OCA do not recommend this type. First off you will have to shave off your CPU's feet. And if you were considering reselling the chip, you can go ahead and give yourself about 10-20% less then you were gonna get. Yes, I do agree those feet are pretty worthless when it comes to protecting your processor, but they damn sure help hold on TweakMonster's Copper Spacers :-)
Performance: Performance of these copper spacers is VERY simple. Do you think it will help in cooling your chip? NO. If you spread thermal grease on it (don't laugh, I have seen this) will it yet cool down your CPU? NO. Will it make you the coolest kid on the block? NO. Well damn SPeeD, what will this nifty little item do for me? I'll tell ya what, it will sure as hell save your CPU from being chipped, crushed and smashed into little pieces. And who of us wants this to happen. Go ahead and ask Justi and Buster both. They have had it happen and if you've ever seen a grown man cry when he's turned his brand new $200 CPU into a paperweight, it is not a pretty sight my friends. Believe me. We've seen a few my friends, I wished I had taken pics to show you peeps, but I guess the first thing on my mind was not taking a picture, heh, more of getting the hell outta the way before I got my ass whooped!! Anyways, here I am going to show you a few checks we made before we installed the spacers.
Pics-n-Wordz: Lets take another peek at the spacer sitting atop an unsuspecting Celmine 600Mhz chip.
Yeah, pretty sharp huh? Anyways, lets move on and see if this spacer will REALLY protect our CPU. Here you'll see a pic of me laying a business card over the top of the CPU core and the spacer. Or you can call it by it's second name, the Thermal Paste Spreader ;-)
Looks pretty good from this viewpoint. Sorry for the fuzziness, I usually get some good pics in but I just couldn't seem to get a good shot of this. Onward.
Upon closer inspection, you can see that the copper spacer is nearly Identical to the height of the CPU. Don't worry though, in actuality it is just slightly shorter than the CPU itself, which is a good thing. You certainly do not want the spacer keeping your HSF unit from properly mating with the CPU core, nosir. Now don't let the above pic fool you with shadows, because this spacer is the perfect height that it should be. Now one thing we always like to do here at the OCA secret labs, is put a normal coat of thermal paste onto the chip, then actually mount the HSF on it, then pull it off to confirm that you do indeed have good contact between the CPU and the HSF. Here is a pic of what I'm talking about.
The Globalwin WBK38
Thermaltake's Volcano II
One last thing. I want to show you peeps a pic I took awhile back of my alpha PEP66 that I was using to cool my P3. I couldn't figure out why it would not cool nearly as well as the SORB, GORB, or even the stock Intel heatsink. And here is why.
If you look closely, you will see the right side of the heatsink has not even made contact with the chip. In a word, BAD. I suggest if you have an alpha with feet, to take the pliers to it and pull 'em out and toss 'em in the trash. ESPECIALLY if you have an AMD cpu with cushioned feet. This should be common sense to most of us, but you never know, hehe. Sometimes when you have had 1 or 9 too many beers, this could happen. Don't let that be YOU!
Conclusion: I will briefly touch on the high's and low's of the TweakMonster Copper Spacer.
Highs:
Lows:
As a final note. TweakMonster is the actual Manufacturer of this product. He does not sell them directly, but provides them to fine online vendors such as SideWinder Computers. Also, checkout his brief "tutorial" before you install. Thanks for checking in folks. If you have any props, flames, or feedback, please send it HERE.
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
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