At least the thermal paste isn’t too thick…
I used to work as an intern in a PC repair shop and we had a guy come in saying his new self build computer doesn’t work. Turns out he cut a huge part off the mainboard so it fits into the case.
My Frankenstein in an ikea drawer probably works better than that customers Frankenstein and mine doesn’t even have all needed power supplied
That’s significantly worse. Assembling a PC without knowing what a cooler is for is bad enough, but to actually cut pieces off complex electronic components, I don’t know what kind of state of mind you have to be in for that.
“but I didn’t need those extra PCIE slots!”
The kind of state that would have me refund his money and tell him I’m baffled and can’t figure it out.
what kind of state of mind you have to be in for that
Probably crazy enough to demand that the PC repair shop has to bear all the costs he caused by his genius idea.
It works/worked on some GPUs though.
Probably only very specific ones in very specific areas
Must’ve gotten a faulty CPU that produces heat when it runs.
… as opposed to those ones that consume heat from the environment when they run.
I asked chatgpt to put my CPU into heat consuming mode and it then suggested I mine BTC to equal out the thermodynamics. I’m still trying to figure out where the BTC is, but it’s nice to go green
Most programmers I know wouldn’t understand what they’re looking at here.
This is sysadmin humor maybe?
If you’re a programmer and don’t see what is wrong…
We’re looking at a hardware issue. What would a programmer care?
Personally I’d just patch it in software by coding up my own CPU cooler.
I don’t just download my ram, I compile it from source
Then you’re a typical programmer, at least in my experience.
As someone who has done both, programmer most recently, and has respect for both, you’re being very judgy. Both are difficult enough jobs without other tech fields bringing each other down.
I’m not judging. Just observing that a lot of programmers I know wouldn’t understand what’s happening in this picture so maybe it isn’t really programmer humor.
So interesting. I’m a programmer, I know a lot of programmers, and I’d hate to think that any of them wouldn’t immediately recognise the issue.
Not sure if you’re the outlier or I am.
I’ve taught upper level comp sci at a STEM school and I think a majority of my students wouldn’t know what they were looking at in this picture.
People who’ve written doctoral theses on machine learning and and natural language processing have asked me for help building their gaming rig.
Not to say its universal, but the Venn Diagram of programmers and hardware nerds is far from a circle.
I’m definitely not a hardware nerd. I don’t know what the current generation graphics cards are called, I have no opinions on liquid cooling, and I haven’t bought RAM in a decade. I can still tell that CPU has no cooling at a glance.
Nerdom is a spectrum. You’re not on either end of this one.
People who’ve written doctoral theses on machine learning and and natural language processing have asked me for help building their gaming rig.
I think that could still be different. knowing the internals of the computer is different from knowing which brand to buy, how to combine, compatibility, drivers, etc
Yep. This is hardware related. To be fair, many programmers I know are also into self-building and more hardware-related stuff, but that’s something I personally just don’t know my way around well (instead I like more theoretical computer science more). So I genuinely don’t know the problem here, and I think that’s fine.
Wisdom is knowing what you don’t know.
The big silver heat sink that’s on the left is meant to be on the CPU, which is the Silver squarish shape towards the right. Keeping the CPU cool is a big deal — CPUs come with a smaller fan which is sufficient for many people, but people who use their PC more intensively, or want to extend the life of their CPU typically buy an additional cooler. Here’s an example of a stock cooler, and here’s a motherboard that’s using the fairly basic aftermarket CPU cooler that I have. It was only $30, but when I was new to PC building, it was strongly recommended, because if your CPU gets too hot, it’ll throttle itself and slow down. People who over clock their CPU (running it at a higher voltage for better performance) have to get even beefier cooling, such as water cooling. You can completely fry your CPU if you do something wrong when overclocking, and even if it doesn’t get that bad, minor mistakes can cause crashes due to CPU overheating.
So TL;DR: keeping your CPU cool is super important for both performance and longevity of the CPU.
The PC in the top photo has zero cooling for the CPU. Not even the stock fan that comes with the CPU. That heatsink that’s attached to the case fan is almost certainly intended for the CPU — you don’t even need a heatsink in that location.
This means that this person’s CPU will rapidly overheat soon after it is turned on.
Edit: you can actually see where the heat sink should match up to the CPU here
You get no shade from me. My only beef is with programmers who act like they are experts in all things computer when they aren’t.
BTW, the issue in the picture is that the CPU cooler is attached to the wall of the case instead of the CPU. It shuts down because modern hardware will usually turn itself off when it overheats to mitigate the risk of permanent damage.
I thought that was the cooler of a different component and the cpu just lacks one. Now that you said it, I see the CPU footprint on the cooler.
Some old cpus would actually go up in smoke if you ran them without cooler: https://youtu.be/Xf0VuRG7MN4
Writing code but never seen the thing the code runs inside of…
I guess they are not very curious.
I’m sure there are great screenwriters who don’t know the first thing about cameras or projectors. They can still write good screenplays.
a better analogy would be people who write software for the cameras. screenwriters are closer to software testers
The CPU is the silver squarish shape towards the right. It generates a lot of heat when in use, so having good cooling for it is important. So important that CPUs come with a fan in the box. This involves a heat sink to help draw heat away from the CPU. This screws on mounting points around the CPU, but thermal paste is also used to help heat transfer up. Then there’s a fan that attaches to that heat sink, so that the hot air from the CPU can be blown away from the CPU.
People spend a heckton of money on cooling for their CPU and GPU, because when things overheat, they throttle themselves and performance becomes super slow. Longevity of components can also be harmed by higher temperatures. If it gets too bad, then it will crash entirely.
This PC has put the CPU heatsink on the case fan on the left. I don’t think this is especially harmful in and of itself — the big problem is that the CPU is entirely “naked” and has no cooling whatsoever. This means the CPU begins overheating basically as soon as the PC is turned on.
Edit: you can actually see where the heat sink should match up to the CPU here
Ah btw, the thermal paste is only supposed to fill the microscopic surface gaps, so please add only a tiny bit and don’t spread it around (creates air bubbles while adding the sink). A rice grain worth in size and form in the center is enough. This also presses the air out on fastening the sink.
What is rice corn? An image search just shows me corn kernels mixed with rice.
Sorry, i meant “rice grain”. It’s Reiskorn in german, the Korn being the grain. One of the same word, different meaning pitfalls. Corrected it.
Thats pretty cool
Im trying to learn German kinda
Corn is the same word in English, it’s falling out of use though because of American sweetcorn which is named “corn” because it has so many corns and they are so large
Oh, that’s interesting! I’m not very familiar with German, thanks for sharing!
How??
You’d be surprised how many people would say ‘is it drivers’ or ‘is it bootlooping’ without realizing the uncooled (fuck you autocorrect) cpu
Ah yes, my raw, uncooked cpu, wtf lol
It’s the irq jumpers for the mca expansion card right?
Do you want the spoiler
Not really, but thank you. I was just throwing in some ancient sysadmin humour.
They’re just too advanced for us, they already have “wireless” cooling technology.
It legitimately took me a second for my brain to un-break itself when I looked at the photo. First thinking…something’s not right here…and not for even a moment thinking it would be something as stupid as putting the heat-sink on the case fan… Then the realisation that yes…it really is something that stupid.
In the old days, before laptops, we used to call the case and everything in it the CPU. You had your monitor, keyboard, mouse, maybe printer, maybe modem, and they would all plug into the “CPU.” Yes, we knew there was also a chip inside called that but we didn’t get all pedantic about it.
With that in mind: Place the CPU fan on the heat sink… That’s exactly what they did.
That “we” isn’t global. Some called it “the CPU”, some called it “the hard drive”, some made fun of those two groups for not knowing what they were talking about.
And then came the iMac, and all the phone calls from Mac users trying use a PC and only hitting the monitor power button…
Oh, yes, I forgot it was also the hard drive! Now that I think about it, I’m not sure the proper name. Today I’d just call it the tower, but I’m not sure what the square ones that sat with the monitor on top would be called.
I think those are where the name “desktop” comes from, though that term now refers to other computer things.
I refer to them as “tower”, “case” (which is technically just the shell and frame, but can include the contents), “computer”, or “machine”.
tower is fine, but I think what you mean is the desktop PC. and the little square ones are the mini PCs
I love that they had the heatsink and fan, they just didnt know where it went and actually mounted it to the case. It wasnt just that they didnt have one.
I’m sort of surprised it fit on the 120mm fan slot. Maybe they just forced screws through the grill though.
Oh shit I noticed the exposed CPU but totally missed that part.
Must keep the fan cool!
It was long ago but I was this dumbass. I kept reading online people said a fan was optional and didn’t understand they meant a case fan not a CPU fan so I built everything and couldnt figure out why it wouldn’t turn on. Realized fairly quickly and bought one and everything worked after that
I didn’t realise that I need to buy a power supply. I had a fully assembled computer and was asking myself how I can plug the thing in.
Also just bought a psu after and it still works like a charm to this day.
You can stick wires with mains voltage into any two pins of any motherboard connector but there’s a reason they’re not shaped like an AC receptacle 💥. Unless it’s a ZX Spectrum, that cheap thing used the most basic connector (3.5mm jack) for everything: cassette I/O, video output and, unregulated 9V DC power input from the transformer brick, and people would often fry it.
One thing I noticed and appreciated when I first tinkered with my computer was the whole “There’s only one place this can go” for the more critical cables. I did mange to mess up my fans, but that wasn’t a big deal.
Honestly, I am envious of you, as well as the person OP posted above. You did something - learning from whatever source you could find best; having the determination and will to go ahead and sought help perhaps knowing too well you might be ridiculed. Because for the people that know this stuff, it is trivial and not worth of botheration. So the help is not enthusiastic - but for the new doer it is so challenging.
I wish I had the energy, time and courage of you all… Maybe someday I will but until then I can only love and admire your passion.
You just want something bad enough sugar
Technically, a CPU fan is also optional but you need to provide some other cooling (water pump?) or accept massive throttling.
noctua have a passive cpu cooler, NH-P1 https://www.noctua.at/en/products/nh-p1
I don’t get the point. You still need an exhaust fan for the case. Maybe in an open air setup I guess?
Depends mostly on the CPU “TDP” (even tho nowadays the TDP is not an actual power limit) and size of heatsink, check out Streacom passive cases for example.
But the essential part in a pc is the heatsink, before the cpu fan (or any fan).
But that will not work unless in a wind tunnel of some sort
It might be sufficient if the case airflow is good. Not sure if you could avoid any heat throttling that way, but I’d guess it wouldn’t need to shut down because of heat.
There’s always natural convection - on a 25W CPU you should be fine
