Too hot for stock?

[intbal]

I have a Celeron 440 in a brand new budget system with really nothing installed (integrated vga, pci slots are empty, one 1GB DDR2 stick, 160GB SATA2 HDD, lone DVDRW drive). This processor is supposed to run very cool. A summary of opinions suggests idle temps should be in the mid to high 20s and full load at no more than 40C. Well, I'm getting 49C at idle and 52C under moderate load (so says Core Temp). This is way too hot, right?
Although I'm sure that's not a temperature that can cause any harm, it tells me that something must be wrong. What's the best way to diagnose the problem?

 

[ShadowFlareX]

First, go to BIOS and check how much temp the BIOS is reading. If it reports much cooler temps, then Core Temp isn't the best app to monitor your CPU temp. If about the same, maybe you need to take the heatsink off, re-apply the thermal compound and re-seat the heatsink back.

 

[bharatwaja]

Re-apply thermal compund and reseat the HSF....

and like ShadowFlareX said, coretemp isnt the best program suited to you.... Check in bios.... Those temps cant cause any harm, but u didnt mention what motherboard this PC is built on...

 

[intbal]

Thanks for the replies.
The motherboard is an ECS 945GCT-M3. In the bios, the temp registered as 35C, which is still way too hot for this CPU at idle. Especially considering this PC sits RIGHT NEXT to a window unit air conditioner. I don't have any thermal compound handy, so that will have to wait. This is an out-of-the-box Emachines system and not my primary PC, so there's no problem even if it does melt down.