Q9550 temps and HSF questions

When I first got my rig up and running, the idle temps with my TRUE 120 with 2 fan push/pull config were:

*According to CoreTemp*
-Stock temps-
Core 0: 36 C
Core 1: 44 C
Core 2: 43 C
Core 3: 34 C

A few days ago, I filled up the slots on my case, the Cosmos S. I put all (except for the front red intake fan) A.C. Ryan Blackfire case fans in it. 2000rpm i believe. Three top exhaust, 1 rear exhaust, 1 front intake, and 1 bottom intake. My idle cpu temps all dropped about 4-5C. I am atm idling at:

*According to CoreTemp*
-Stock temps-
Core 0: 32C
Core 1: 40C
Core 2: 37C
Core 3: 30C

Tomorrow I am going to reseat the heatsink.

Ill take off the TRUE 120 and (if I really have to) clean off all the stuff and reapply the thermal grease. I will use Arctic Silver 5. Arcti Clean 1 and 2 will be used to clean and purify the surfaces.

I wanted to get an opinion. When I first put on the grease, I put a rice gain sized amount and spread it with my finger protected by GLAD plastic wrap. I spread it over the whole surface at what I was pretty damned sure was perfectly thin.

What would be a better way to apply it for a Quad Core? Would it be better to draw a line of grease over both physical cores or would a blob in the middle and then squished with the HSF work?

Or maybe it's not how I applied the grease but the way I screwed it down? Should I tighten the spring screws until it feels like I "hit a wall" so to speak? Seems like I screwed them all down till they hit the motherboard and cant go in any further.

I'm also gonna put in my Red cold cathode bars and my neon purple lit wires. ^_^

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Ok, so I just found out that one side of the screws of my HSF were not all the way screwed down. Now all of the corners are down to the end of the screw. My temps *according to core temp *:

Core 0: 30C
Core 1: 37-38C
Core 2: 36C
Core 3: 28C

30 minutes of Prime95:

*According to core temp. Add 5C for Everest and OCCT readings*
HIGHEST:
Core 0: 46C
Core 1: 51C
Core 2: 50C
Core 3: 43C

This is at stock speeds. These temps are a huge improvement over my initial load and idle temps. Are these temps ok now or should I still reapply the thermal grease? I would like to OC it to 3.4GHz. 8.5x 400MHz FSB

*NOTE* Everest and OCCT are both reading my cores as 5C hotter than core temp. Should I instead go from those temps? I hope not that sets me back even further.

What cooler do you have? Those are amazing temps.

Any quality air cooler, when properly installed in a well ventilated case, can easily do that much, or better.
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

I get 57-60C full load on q6600. It's at a lower 3.6ghz, but hey, the 65nm process produce more heat.

They're pretty common. Reset that heatsink. Watercooling is overrated. Most benchmarks show they only cool slightly better than the best air cooling, sometimes, not as well.

dont use to much a THIN and i mean THIN line across the center of the cpu is good "

my q9950 @ 4.0 E0 @ 1.232 cpuz'd @ prime 95 24/7 prime stable
idle 34 ,32,30,30
load 56,51,52,52

antec 900 cable manged
tuniq tower 120 lapped
all fans on medium