CPU temp won't go down for the life of it

I have a Q9550 and a Xigmatek HDT S1283. The installation couldn't have been harder, but I tried it and it worked. I noticed temps crawling upward to 55c on idle! I had put too much of the thermal grease that came with the heatsink. I took it off, and reapplied Arctic 5. At stock clock, my temps are idling at 44c -ish, but with the SpeedStep ON, (running 1 gig slower than normal while idle).

A lot better, but still not good for an idling 45nm chip. What could possibly be wrong? It's not that hot in my room (but it is hotter than the rest of the house- I'm on the 3rd floor which was used mainly for storage before I moved in. There's hardly climate control, the vents up here are crap.) The heatsink, I believe is firmly down.

If I had to guess something was wrong, I'd say it's how I applied the thermal grease, but it should be ok. Could improper thermal grease installation be causing this 10c+ excess heat? If I had suspicion to believe I did something wrong, it would be because I applied a small dot in each corner of the CPU and then a dot in the center instead of the line like instructed. I then tried to install the heatsink, but something was messed up with the push pins so I removed the heatsink after the stuff had been spread a bit. I noticed a little bit of the corners hadn't been fully covered, so I used a coffee filter to spread a tiny bit of extra grease already on the CPU into those spots. I placed the heatsink back on, it went in nicely, and now here I am.

halp.

Also I'm told that the compound takes about a week to settle in and work to it's potential, but would it still be ok if I ran Prime95 to check it's 100% load temps and also play some games (ie Warhammer, Mass Effect) before that week is up?

I'm currently using RealTemp to monitor temps, and TJ Max is set to 100c. . My temps are between 41 - 45

GPU = ATi HD 4870
Case = Tempest
PSU = Antec 850w

sounds good. not looking forward to having to reapply the paste again, but if it comes down to that, i will. i really don't want to have to disconnect my mobo and apply the bottom bracket if i want the better mounting system, but if this keeps up i may have to. or i could wait until the colder weather rolls around and see how my comp does.

maybe i should make a video of what i do and post it so you guys know exactly whats going on lol. i'm about to run a Prime95 "Blend" test. i'll post results in a little bit.

SpeedStep off, OCed to 3.4Ghz. RealTemp reading about 66 temps at full load. So, uh, I guess that's a tolerable temp? It's not like these temps should damage anything? Plus chances are I won't ever have the CPU running at full load.

66 at full load on a Q9550 is considered "warm" not hot or too hot. It's pretty much ideal for air and a 3.4Ghz OC.