i opened up my computer and stuck in a sata drive the other day, and then i checked my cpu temps using aida32 and it showed it idling at 70-80C. before this i idled at 35-45 and under load it would go up to the mid 50s max. so i took out the drive, and the temps stayed high. i bought a zalmann cooler and installed it, and the temps dropped to the 60s. i was wondering if this was somethign wrong with my sensor or if my temps really did jump that high. thanks.

boot up into bios and check the system health menu. CPU temp should be reported there. If it is still that high I would recommend remove the CPU and clean off old thermal compound/pad and renew with a fresh dob of thermal compound. I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

the bios reports the same temperature, and as for the thermal compound, i scraped off the previous batch and re-applied before installing my new hsf.

fans, fans, and more fans. The preshott chip runs very hot they came out with the 775 to offset this issue but it runs hotter than the 478. I use a mixture I came up with myself for thermal compound. I dab some anti seize you can get in any auto parts store on the chip it is rated to 2000 degrees. It is a bit runny so I add a small squirt of artic fox silve and mix it with my finger then spread it on the center of the heat sink I have pulled off fans up to 2 years old and the compound is still fluid. On the 478 chips make sure not to block the cooling hole with any globs. Just need a thin coat and that factory gloop is there to shorten life expectancy. Michael @Working Computers

I'm still on the northwood core, but I'll recheck the thermal paste.