Ok while i was at my mom's house over the weekend i had planned on reclaiming my vid card i put in her pc a long time ago since i now have use for it in my extra box and she doesn't really need it at all. Well as im pulling her box out of its cubbard area thingy i noticed a disturbing jingle/rattle coming from inside the box. Turns out that one of her heatsinks, the bigest one actually, had come of from where it was mounted on the mobo and was lodged inbetween the bottom of the box and my vid card

Now i know that period that is a problem, but what i need to know is what that heatsink was cooling, fromt he looks of it im assuming either the north or south bridge, and if the computer could be used in its current state moderatly since i will not be able to fix it before this weekend. Attached are 3 pictures of here mobo.

the pic attached to this post is a general overview of most of the inside of the box. the "top" of the picture is the back of the box, left is the bottom, right the top, and down is the front.