Heatsink

A CPU is prone to overheating because some of its components product heat. Without the heatsink, the heat generated by the components stay in your CPU, which will burn or fry it. 

Because most components are made of electronic chips, they absorb heat easily. If they receive too much heat, they become damaged and, therefore, useless, posing a risk to the functionality of high performance computers or servers.

Having a heat sink is critical because it helps your CPU cool even if you use it for a long period of time. It is designed to absorb the heat coming from your CPU then disperse the heat away from its components. The dissipation of heat is possible because a heat sink has fins, which gives more surface area during a heat transfer. 

A heat sink needs to make strong contact with the source of heat in order to maximize cooling. Heat sinks use a thermal conductor to move the heat into fins, which have larger surface areas and thus disperse heat throughout the computer.