Temps Way Too High

Question

Please help me! lol
I just built a new PC and the the processor is 3.2Ghz P4.  
It has a Zalman 7000Al/Cu cooler and it hitting a much too high temperature!
The case has a front 80mm intake fan (not bringing air into the case as its blocked), a 80mm side fan bringing loadsa air into the case and then 2 x80mm fans extracting at the back. Plus the PSU has a 120mm fan over the CPU.
Now the problem is that at idle the cpu temp is about 45C but in game it rises steeply. When running 3DMark 2003 about half way it hit 65C. That is way too high.  
Now the thing is that when I feel the zalman it is hardly even hot. So obviously isnt making good contacts. Am I right. If so how do i fix this.
I Did use artic silver III on the heatsink and a fine amount so that you could just read the writing on the CPU. What else can I do please? Shouldnt the heatsink be at least hot?
Thanks. Answer quick!
SAspaz

Answer 1

Ah, you seem to have the exact problem I only just got over.  I just upgraded my P4C 2.8Ghz's cooler from stock to a Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu, and at first, I had temperature hell, getting temperatures like you are, but it seems I had just misapplied the thermal paste.  I'm using the included Zalman paste, and from the tests I've seen, AS3 is only just very very slightly better than it, I'm talking maybe half a degree C.
The way I eventually found to apply it which gave the best result was to put the usual slightly smaller than a grain of rice dollop of the paste right in the middle of the processor, then sit the cooler on top of that, and give it a bit of a twist side-to-side so that it mashes out the paste.  You can take a look underneath to make sure this has given a good spread, don't worry if it doesn't cover the whole heat spreader, it shouldn't, and in any case the core which you are cooling is only under a tiny part of that huge plate.  As long as it's a reasonable size spread, just go from there and install the cooler as normal, and you should find it works fine.  While this method of grease application seems to be against most of the guides I've read, it definitely works fine (I'm getting 29C idle, max 45C load, in a case with absolutely horrid ventilation), and is in fact the way Arctic Silver recommend.
So give that a try, it worked for me.
Oh, and on the whole temperature misreporting deal, while I'm pretty sure my CPU is measured fine, is there some kind of issue with the system temp readings?  I should check my BIOS version, but I'm just puzzled in that my system temp tends to read about 40C, which is way more than even my CPU.