Another temp question

[Jesusfrk611]

I've been running my build for awhile now and it seems pretty constant to the CPU staying at about 40 degrees C idle. Is this normal for an E6600 with a Zalman 9500 using Acrtic Silver 5? I have already rewired my case the best I possibly can, so it's not the wiring that is the problem. Should I reseat the heatsink, or is 40 C normal on idle? I've heard of people getting 30C or lower on OC'd CPUs, and this one is stock speed...

 

[Jesusfrk611]

I just reapplied thermal paste and put the heatsink back on. At startup the temp was like 30ish I think. and the temp when playing the Crysis demo was 40. This is during the break in period, so hopefully it will be even better later. I guess I'm not good at putting on thermal paste as I've failed on my first attempts on the 2 systems I did apply thermal paste to...

 

[mammikoura]

yeah that 40c was a little high, 30c sounds pretty good.
And yeah, applying thermal paste isn't that easy, but the good thing is that even if you screw up you can just do it again.