Less than perfectly applied thermal grease, low quality thermal grease, aluminum heat sink base, vapor locked heat pipes.
A few contributing factors to higher CPU temps.
My Q9550 idles ~30-33 using a FreeZone cooler, and I have a very hot case temp (14 internal drives).
You still might want to consider an after market HSF. The stock Phenom cooler is just adequate, and rather noisy.
Many of the AM2/AM3 coolers don't need access to the bottom of the mobo to change out. It's a clip and bracket system, just like your cooler is now, and if your case has enough room, you can often do it easily without taking out the board. Intel CPUs OTOH, often require access to the bottom of the board to fit the bracket.
If you have enough room in your case, you might look at the Arctic Cooling 64 Pro. I have one and it keeps my Phenom idling at about 25C, and 40ish under full load. They aren't that expensive, either.
Mine is an Intel Q6600 runs idle around 45c and 54c under extreme gaming with a Masscool 6 heat pipe cooler. I know AMD and intel are apples and oranges but you always obviously want it to run as cool as possible.Fabe
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