I have a AMD Athlon 64 3500+ I have a Zalman heatsink and fan, and I also use arctic silver 5 thermal paste. Before I even boot the OS and go into the BIOS it says im running at 62 Celcius. I have followed the instructions on how to apply the thermal grease and heatsink on arctic silver's website and still doesnt get any cooler. I have never been able to get my system below 40 celcius. Not sure what to do, should I get a new heatsink, a new processor, or what?

What volume of paste did you apply and did you clean the heatsink and processor lid well with acetone before applying the new goo?

its very important to have perfectly clean faces for the thermal paste to work right, and that you use the correct volume of goop. usually, all you need is a dab the size of a grain of rice on the middle of the lid. too much paste will actually decrease it's efficiency.

I added your quote above because you said you did these things, but applying too much paste between dirty surfaces seems to be the major cause of (non-overclocking and bent-pin) overheats.

gkd