Do I need to reseat my CPU cooler?

[srw]

I'm running an I7 920 at stock speed with a Mugen 2 cooler. Out of the case, my idle temps are 35c and at full load (Intel burn test) they top out at 69c. Temps are as measured by realtemp. From what I've read, these are within the range of normal but a bit high. In the past, I would have gone ahead and reseated the cooler without a second thought. The mugen2, however, will require me to remove my motherboard and in general will be a PITA. What would you folks do?

Moving on, my temps in the case (Antec Solo) are much higher. 44C at idle and 78c at full load. Obviously some case cooling issues here. I've put in two 92mm front fans but not seen a lot improvement. I'd love to get the temps down but don't want to end up with a system that sounds like a crop duster. Any suggestions?

thanks in advance for the advice

 

[Tullphan]

What's the ambient temps?

 

[srw]

Ambient is 24C

 

[snouter]

I had to reseat mine 3 times - CoolerMaster V8

Same deal, I had to pull the mobo...

Stock speed in the case I idle around 40, game around 46-50 and handbrake around 60...

I overclocked to 3.4 and temp only went up 5c or so...

I did see temp drops with just reseating... for the thermal paste, I ended up with a kind of 5 dot pattern like on dice

 

[Tullphan]

What kind of TIM are/were you using?
I'd take it off, clean both the CPU & HSF good & apply some quality TIM...making sure to follow the mfg application instructions.

 

[srw]

Thanks everyone. I took everything apart and reseated the heatsink with AS5. When I originally installed, I used the thin layer of paste with an piece of plastic method. This time around I used a line of paste per the instructions on Arctic Silver's website. Idle is now high 30's and 64c at full load. Much better.

Again, thanks for the suggestions. If it hadn't been for the advice, I probably would have just left things as was and suffered with the higher temps.