AMD 64 Processor too hot

[Ezendil]

System Specs:

Abit AN8 Ultra
AMD Athlon 64 3200 (Stock heatsink and fan)
eVGA GeForce 7800GTX
Antec Neo HE 500Watt
Corsair Value RAM 2*512

My first time booting up the system, and trying to install windows, the processor overheated and the computer crashed. After that when I would boot up the computer I would get temperatures in the high 60's C. So I replaced the thermal pad that came with the processor with Arctic Silver 5 and was able to achieve a stable system, albeit with high temps (40-50 idle, 60's 100% cpu). But with sustained CPU usage, the temp would rise to 75. I then re-applied arctic silver, following the directions from their website, but after turning the computer on and entering the bios the temperature starts at 60 and steadily rises.

I was fairly sure this was a problem with the heat conduction between the processor and heatsink because the heatsink would become warm, but not hot during operation; but i don't know anymore. So, if someone could help me out, it would be much apreciated.

 

[staats]

This will sound pretty basic, but is your case breathing OK? Regardless of how well a CPU cooler works, if the hot air cannot get out of the case, everything will get hot inside... Think of it like an oven.