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

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] jaycifer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What is rice corn? An image search just shows me corn kernels mixed with rice.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] jaycifer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Oh, that’s interesting! I’m not very familiar with German, thanks for sharing!