What is this mysterious metal thing on my motherboard

[Kryptonite700]

Probably a dumb question, but ive looked everywhere for an answer and cant seem to find one. So what exactly is the large metal thing next to the cpu socket and behind the vga/dvi outputs. It seems it might interfere with installing a hyper 212 evo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128565

 

[TheMagicalWallaby]

Do you mean the heatsink? It wont interfere.

 

[Kryptonite700]

Do you mean the North Bridge?

Not the north bridge, its not labeled in the pic. Between the usb/vga/dvi connectors and the socket

 

[Eximo]

That is the VRM cooler if I understand what you are saying correctly.

It is a heat sink for the powersupply that provides the low voltages the CPU needs. Converts 12V input down to 1-ish volts the CPU runs on.

 

[Kryptonite700]

Do you mean the heatsink?

erm, maybe.. isnt the heatsink attacked to the fan?

 

[k1114]

It's a vrm heatsink. They follow specific dimensions to not intefere with cpu heatsinks. The one that says gigabyte is the nb.

 

[TheMagicalWallaby]

Do you mean the North Bridge?

Not the north bridge, its not labeled in the pic. Between the usb/vga/dvi connectors and the socket

Whoops, I meant heatsink.

 

[Kryptonite700]

alright thanks guys, nothing to worry about then.

 

[TheMagicalWallaby]

Do you mean the heatsink?

erm, maybe.. isnt the heatsink attacked to the fan?

No, it cools the motherboard, not the processor. It is passively cooled, so no fan is attached. you are thinking of the CPU heatsink. That has a fan on it.