Motherboard heat sinks/armor

[pandasaurus]

Have a question, currently running the msi krait gaming 3x mobo, want to run my corsair h110igtx on the top of my corsair 400c case but these "heat sinks," I believe that's what they are, appear in the way, they unscrew on the rear of the board, is it safe to remove these? Is it safe to run the board without them? If anything I'd only need to remove top one in the image

 

[13thmonkey]

I wouldn't if I were you, so it's the radiator+fan that's the problem?