adice on cooling please

[AMD nut]

hello.
I have recently had a prob with a amd 3000+ . It was running at 61c that was with the thermo pad in place.
I was told my waranty could be void if I use anything else.
Well after 3 days of worrying I used silocone paste and now It runs around 48c is this ok?
Now I want to get some cooling in to the PC.
What is the best thing to do..
I have one side fan blowing out already.
I would like to make sure it will never creep up again.
AdvicePlease...
Spec.. Gigabyt board kt600 chip
X 2 80 gig hard drives
512 ddr mem 400
Gforce4 128 meg.
Thanks Steve "UK"

[sechs]

If you are using a retail processor, using anything other than the provided cooling solution will void your warranty.

With pads, it will often takes some time for the thermal goo to melt and make good contact with the CPU core.

[djmartes]

How many fans are in your system? A typical setup would be to have the fans in the front of the case sucking air in, and the fans in the back of the case blowing air out. If you have those, try turning the side fan so that it draws air into the case and blows on the PCI cards and CPU. Oh, and 48c is a perfectly normal temp for your CPU.