What is considered "hot" idle temps for a Athlon 64 x2 6000 (3 ghz)?

Question

I'm idling in BIOS at 56-57 degrees Celsius with my Zalman 9500, one 120 mm fan, 3 90 mm fans. I know this chip runs hot, but I guess it could result from two things:
1) My case is slightly cluttered...darn psu manufacturer didn't provide me with long enough cables to really tuck em away.
2) I may have put a little too much thermal grease (zinc oxide). Also, I had to remove the heatsink fan...possibly after it dried.

I have some Arctic Silver 5 (which I should've used--my friend convinced me not to becuase you have to wait 200 hours for it to "set"). I think I'm going to remove the current compound and apply it.

Answer 1

I don't know the technical but I have just built my system and installe dthat same chip. My system idles at not more than 40degrees C (when i say idle, i mean running my tv tuner, multiple messaging clients and my sound card and a couple other apps.
my advice, remove the cpu heatsink and fan. make sure you apply a relatively thick layer of thermal paste between the cpu and the heatsink. install the original AMD heatsink and fan. you should find your chip cools down.
also see the AMD.com website for a range of tools that will be of use to you.
they say you only need a thin layer, however i found that a thin layer is not as effective as a thicker layer in ceeping a system cool. i should say the cpu came with a heatsink and fan and i only installed that direct no additional paste. I refer to another system where a thick layer of paste is working better than a thin layer. (if that makes sense).
your hard drives should get there own cooling.
you should check the air flow on your fans, make sure they are installed correctly. make sure that the fans are effectively expelling the hot air from your computer.
I pressume you mean you brought a chassis with a PSU installed (never a good idea, in my opinion).
so your chassis manufacturer would not normally provide you with drive cables etc. all you would get is the front panel connectors, screws for the chassis and the PSU.
even with a motherboard you only get a limited number of cables (never enough).
the only problem from a cooling PoV is if the cables are blocking a clear air flow between the CPU and the rear fan(s).
make sure you install cooling on your hard drive(s) then tuck your cables as close as you can between the drives and the CPU keeping the top of the CPU clear. (if this is a tower chassis, when the tower is in normal upright operation position make sure the cpu fan is clear of blockages and the rear fans are unobstructed).
remember heat rises also make sure to keep your computer room temperature below 25C. the higher the room temp the harder your computers fans need to work to make sure the computer is colder than room temperature which will impact on system performance.

good luck.
edit. this link will help with your CPU installation, watch the videos.
http://www.amd.com/gb-uk/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_869_9460%5e6678,00.html

Answer 2

It looks like your processor cooling is really messed up. Maximum case temp for that processor is just 63°C.

Remove your heatsink and clean it well with rubbing alcohol. Apply AS5 (thin film) and do not worry about the "settling" thing. It is the heatsink that takes away the heat, NOT AS5. Mount the heatsink properly. If problem persists, you may have to lap the heatsink base.