checking temps by putting your hand near/on the hsf.......

[Shadow ÒÓ]

I've seen this a few times, and want to clarify something. If your hsf is not making good contact with your cpu, it would feel somewhat cool to the touch. This means that it's not a good test for checking temps. If you believe your software may be at fault, check the readings in the bios or download another program. Every mobo I've come accross has a thermal monitoring program on the disk that comes with the comptuer. You could try installing that one first. They're not very pretty, but are designed for your board and should be fairly accurate.

[Pinky]

Good point... I rarely have had problems with making good contact with heatsink and CPU since most require a tremendous amount of pressure to clamp to the mobo.

The bit about motherboard monitoring software is key -- I run tests and don't even bother with windows based monitoring systems (that access the motherboards sensors anyway) -- I reboot, access the motherboard and compare temps. Very crucial point well stated.