Well, for the last... 10? 15? years, it would be just a slow sluggish experience. They under/overclock depending on cooling capacity.
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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The fan on my previous Intel CPU (bought a little over 10 years ago) went out, and that thing would shut off in seconds from overheating, even without load.
When you use ChatGPT for buildimh instructions...
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.
Those damned unreliable AMD CPUs, he should have gone with Intel!
I once installed Windows on a Pentium 3 without cooler - not on purpose though - and it worked!
Well, installing the OS was on purpose, the CPU being without cooler not so much.
Apparently modern CPUs are snow flakes 🤓
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
Technically, a CPU fan is also optional but you need to provide some other cooling (water pump?) or accept massive throttling.
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.
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.
Stop trolling. No one knows why without a full diagnostic.
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
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.
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.
It works/worked on some GPUs though.
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.
"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.
Most programmers I know wouldn't understand what they're looking at here.
This is sysadmin humor maybe?
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, it creates air bubbles while adding the sink. A rice corn worth in size and form in the center is enough.
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.
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
Wisdom is knowing what you don't know.
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At least the thermal paste isn't too thick..
Must keep the fan cool!
Tell them to switch to water cooling. You will get an even more awesome picture.
As someone who has worked in an IT repair facility, this image hurts my soul.
When I was in IT, had someone who couldn't get their USB printer to be detected by their laptop. They turned everything on/off and it never would show up. Even I was a little confused, so I unplugged it from the laptop, and then went to go plug it back in, but couldn't feel the port. I go to take a look, and find there's no USB ports on that entire side of the laptop. somehow they plugged the USB cable into the Ethernet port.
Well ok, i sometimes fit a thumbdrive in my notebooks HDMI port, because it's just beside it. Both ports and the thumbdrive still work (not in the HDMI port tho).
'Just look for the port that fits the cable!'
Eons ago, I had a guy bring me a non functioning Compaq desktop and say, "Wull the fan was makin' a lotta racket so I greased it."
What he actually meant was, "I sprayed the entire motherboard with WD-40 because I don't know shit about computers OR lubricants."
I gave it a bath in electronics cleaner and it actually fired right up after that.
They're just too advanced for us, they already have "wireless" cooling technology.
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