The thing is, my idle temperatures on my Q6600 are over 40 degrees celsius and it's at stock speed. Like wth??
The cooler I'm using currently is a Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme coupled with a Scythe S-Flex 12CM. fan and a couple drops of AS5. All in an Antec 900 case. I was hoping that the CPU would stay below 35 degrees celsius considering that most people's O/Ced Q6600s run idle at low to high 30s. Oh yeah, the fans in the Antec 900 are all set on low.

Anyways, any helpful response is greatly appreciated!

Turn your case fans up, do some cable management, crank up the AC, double check your HSF...

What is the temp in the room the PC is in?

Heatsink is very good, but S-Flex is a very silent fan, I think it's rated at 800 RPM - that's quite low. You could try with a more powerful fan.
Besides, maybe it's not even spinning on max speed if your motherboard is regulating it, check your bios settings, if it's plugged in your mobo.

And you can't expect a quad core to run 30 C if your ambient temp. is 27 C for example, like in my room at the moment.

Also, "few drops" of AS could actually be too much.

Its a good Cpu cooler but its likely not installed correctly. The four screws will go in just fine, but the metal pieces can get caught on things. If your HS can twist or slide its not installed correctly and likely isn't making proper contact. A friend of mine had this same problem and has since been rectified.

Another possibility is that the base is concave, if this is the case then apply some thermal grease in the middle of it and spread it around so that the middle is made even with the corners. Then apply a small grain of rice sized drop in the middle of the CPU, slap them on together and install the brackets so they are snug and do not let the HS rotate or pivot.

You can lap the base of the HS but its far easier and less time consuming to just even it out with TiM instead.

Lastly, this may be as simple as not having a G0 stepping of a q6600, if so your temps are normal and expected.

Which S-Flex do you have SFF21D, SFF21E or SFF21F. You want the SFF21F. As said turn up the case fans and turn off any fan speed regulation in BIOS. Also said, ambient temps will have a huge impact.

I have installed two so far and they twist but do not slide, and they are installed correctly. Idle Temps ~30c.

Then set the fans on high, do some little experimenting, ie. re-attach the heatsink, change the Scythe S-Flex 12CM or add another 1 for push and pull configuration, etc.

i got q6600 low VID B3 stepping (1.2875v) on water @ 3.0Ghz. Idles 36-38 ; Loads 49-52.... ambient in the room is roughly 26-28C.

Friend has identical low VID B3 Stepping. On Zalman 9500. same temps no OC.

you should check to re-seat your heatsink fan. did you use a razor or other similar flat edge to spread the AS5? did you use too much?

I just want to point out that the AS site instructions recommend you draw a thin line of AS5 over the CPU Heat spreader, not a single drop the size of a grain of rice.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/instructions.htm

Alot of responses, anyways, where should I start. x_x

Ok first, my ambient temperatures I'm not sure in C or F, but it feels like it's around 70 degrees F, less when I turn on the A/C.
The fan I'm using, I'm not sure the model, but BIOS says it's running at about 1300 RPM.

The HS may not seated correctly since It took me two hours to install it because my mobo was a bit bent. The stupid HSF made me put a little too much force onto the pins since the pins wouldn't go into the little hole. However, I did screw down the screws pretty tight, so I'm not really sure if it's this problem.

As for the AS5, I didn't do the put one drop and let the heatsink spread it. I put a couple drops onto the CPU, and I took the heatsink to spread it around until there's an even amount of coating.

And for the case fans, even though I turn on the fans at high, the lowest it would cool the hardware inside my case is 38 C. Only about a 2-5 degrees Celsius.

Wha.... am I like the unlucky owner that has a hot CPU? D:

How did you read the temps? I used speedfan and got 58 degrees Celsius at idle, which is silly of course. Coretemp reports 36 degrees with an ambient temp of 27 Celsius, or 34 with an ambient of 24. I got a Q6600 G0, GA-P35C-DS3R, Scythe Ninja/SFF21E. What does coretemp report for you and at what ambient temperature?

Edit: you've already answered some of my questions before I clicked Submit, that's fast

I use CoreTemp 94, since the 95 one crashes my system. I also use BIOS whenever I start up the computer, and it always reads the temperatures from 40-44 degrees C. :\

Hmm... I'm going to assume that my CPU and heatsink are well installed because they were done by professionals at a local shop. If I get 36 with a G0 then I'd say your B3 should get 37 or 38, all other things being equal. Your Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme is the best cooler around, while I only have a Scythe Ninja. We should be seeing about the same thing.

Maybe the airflow in your case is not good enough. I have five 120 mm fans in a full-tower Silverstone TJ09, all at 1200 rpm. Maybe that's enough to explain a difference of 8 degrees? I really don't know. The Antec 900 has an excellent reputation for cooling, I doubt my setup can beat it by that much.

Your idle temps are 40C ? Your not stress testing? Seems pretty high to me. My idle temps at stock speed were 27 - 28 C. I'd definitely check the heat sink seating and the goop. I've got an Antec 900 too and it is like a wind tunnel. Just turn up the fans to max. May want to lap your heatsink.

My system:
Q6600 GO
Abit IP35 Pro
Tuniq Tower (lapped)
BFG 8800GTS OC2 640MB
Corsair XMS2 2Gb 4-4-4-12
Antec 900 case = wind tunnel
Vista 32 Bit

I've got it to 3 GHz....9X334 with 1.240 VCore

I'm running Prime95 and its been running nicely for 4 hrs now

Temps: Cores 0, 2 = 50 C
Cores 1, 3 = 61 C

Its pretty cool in my room though....18 C


Just a few more data points for you.

I have a Q6600 B3 and i'm getting between 39 and 45 degrees when running BTs and word and such after a long time with a room temp of 22 degrees. I'm using core temp 95 to read it. But i do have records of temps as low as 35 across all cores.
So i'm seeing similar temps as the OP but i don't know if he has on the odd occasion had temps like that.

i'm using a TR U120 extreme with a S-FLEX 1200rpm ( i want to pick up a 1600rpm in sept) i've found that the heatsink moves with some effort even with the mounting screws as tight as i can get them. if someone has found a problem with/ solution to this problem i would be interested in it. my temps do not change much even when the side of the case is off.