A central processing unit (CPU), is under the fan and heat sink. The processor creates a lot of heat as it works, and would soon burn-out if not cooled.
cable connectors fan power supply heat sink CPU
your moma is my heat sink
A heat sink is usually something that draws something away from an electrical componet (Ex: ICU's, Processors and transistors) APEX- A device that absorbs and draws heat from a hot object, dispersing it into the surroundings.
In a active heatsink system you have both a heatsink and a fan thus for the most part an active heatsink cools better with one exception. Should the fan fail the active heatsink will quickly overheat. Passive heatsinks relay on transferring heat without the aid of a fan. The advantage here is that a passive heatsink is fail proof and uses 0 electricity, however passive heatsinks don't typical cool as well. Passive heatsinks work great for supporting chips and RAM cooling. They are also found in servers because of the no fail aspect. EnzoTech produces some passive heatsinks you can read a bit more about them here: http://electricalninja.com/
The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is either a AMD or Intel processor. If you are using a desktop you will be able to locate it on the motherboard. Its under the heat sink/fan on your motherboard. Carefully remove your heat sink and you will find your cpu.
cable connectors fan power supply heat sink CPU
The combination heat sink and cooling fan is sometimes called a cooler.
With a heat sink and fan.
A Fan sink is a Heat sink with a fixed FAN. Heat sink's are blocks of metal, primarily used are are copper, and aluminum, that draw heat from a source ( such as your Processor, or another heat producing chip set ) and spread it across its surface area to be air cooled. A Fan sink, combine's the heat drawing of it's sink with a dedicated fan blowing air into ore out from the heat sink below it. This will significantly improve the sinks cooling power. So a processor cooler is most likely a Fan sink, but some chips surrounding it may only have a heat sink. ( Southbridge controller is usually placed near your CPU and is fitted with a black block of metal that has a lot of blades on it )
your moma is my heat sink
The difference is that Passive cooling is just a heat sink that dissipates the heat into the air without the help of a fan. Active cooling is when you have a heat sink and a fan is directly blowing/sucking air thru the heat sink to cool it. The fan does not have to be on the heat sink as with some dell/gateway computers. The fan is on the plastic shroud, which in turn fits right over the heat sink. Water cooling and phase-change cooling is also considered active cooling.
A heatsink is a piece of metal that sits on top of your computers CPU (and also some other components) that helps conduct heat away from it, the fan you're referring to sits on top of the heat sink and moves the heat away and (ideally) out of the case.
Thermal grease to allow heat to transfer to the heat sink.
Cooling fan is always better. By:B.J
The heat sink absorbs the heat from the processor and then the fan disperses the heat.
fan and heatsink
It's quite literally a combined heat sink and fan. It's used to help keep a CPU -- Central Processing Unit -- from over heating.