this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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Programmer Humor
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Most programmers I know wouldn't understand what they're looking at here.
This is sysadmin humor maybe?
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.
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.
Some old cpus would actually go up in smoke if you ran them without cooler: https://youtu.be/Xf0VuRG7MN4
https://lemmy.world/c/hardwaregore
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.
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
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.
Oh, that’s interesting! I’m not very familiar with German, thanks for sharing!
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.
If you're a programmer and don't see what is wrong....
Then you're a typical programmer, at least in my experience.
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.
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.
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
It’s the irq jumpers for the mca expansion card right?