HD3870 Gigabyte Temp question

I have done a bit of searching around and most people seem to have there 3870 idling at around 40-55 degrees, however mine is up around 65 degrees idle! Its in a good silverstone case with plenty of ventilation. The 1950pro it replaced idled around 50 (dual slot). I am using it to play bioshock in DX10 mode on vista64 and it seems to perform fine so the temperature doesnt seem to have any negative effect on playability/performace, but i am worried about lifespan.

If i install rivaTuner and force the fan speed to 45% it idles at around 43 degrees and the fan isnt that much louder to listen to.

- Is this an 65 an acceptable idle temperature?
- I cant seem to setup custom fan thresholds in rivatuner as the screen with all the graphs doesnt seem to monitor the card temperature correctly. The auto option doesnt seem to scale the fan up either. Only force fan speed seems to work. Has anyone succesfully got rivatuner or ATItool to correct scale the fan based on GPU temp?
- If 65 isnt safe is it okay to just set the fan to a forced 45% and leave it there? Or will this damage the fan long with long term usage?
- Is it worthwhile to take the HS off the GPU and try re setting it with something like AS5? (I dont have any experince with GPU's but have done a fair amount of HS work on CPUS and overclocking. I assume the application would be similar?)


Sorry for so many questions just a little bit concerned.

Leaving it at 45% is okay. Heck leaving it at 100% is cool.
Taking off the heatsink and applying AS5 is a good idea, however it may void your warranty.

Or you can use this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835118001

With this cooler my temps on my 3870 O/C @ 880/1300 don't exceed 55 on load at Idle its only 35....