| Shouldn't use shims at all. Heat sinks are that hard to put on. Just attach the first side, use the slack on the clip to lay the heatsink down flat, then attach the other side.
The rest of your computer should still be fine. As long as the CPU socket doesn't look melted or damaged, it should all be fine. Especially your expansion cards and RAM. A burned CPU should send any power spikes anywhere. They just melt. Fast.
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