Wife gave me a PC for birthday - AMD dual core on ASUS board with stock heatsink. Whenever I run a CPU intensive program for any period of time, the CPU overheats.

Don't want to pull system apart. Is there a better cooling solution that uses the same mounting bracket as the stock heatsink? Or simply a more powerful fan?

Thanks much.

Need more specific info on your exact motherboard and CPU. Many high-end after-market CPU coolers do require that a new mounting plate be installed on the rear of the motherboard, but it depends on exactly what you have.

Regarding fan speed, you may be able to increase it via the Asus bios. But keep in mind that this website and forum is dedicated to Silent PC's, so most of us install high-end heatsinks so that we can cool our CPU's with slower (and quieter) fans.

I once had a Arctic Cooler Freezer Xtreme Rev. 2 cooling my CPU (see signature). It uses the stock retention, and I was able to install the cooler inside the case, i.e. without taking the mobo out.

Even though SPCR seem to have shunned the cooler, I found it quite capable for a low-class CPU. Acceptable temps and very, very quiet, I could only hear some turbulence coming from it. Maybe the AC is adequate for your needs.

Or maybe the Scythe Katana 3:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article957-page6.html

Small, VERY quiet fan.

There are probably a couple of other coolers, but these are the ones that come to mind in your situation.

I replaced the stock cpu fan with a scythe samurai ZZ.

It's a lot less noise now. (Better at full load than before at 15% load.)

You'll have to check whether there's place for the cooler, but I did it easily without removing the MB from the case. (but on a table)

The most difficult (tricky) is removing the current cooling paste.

Hi, the stock CPU cooler (as supplied with retail box CPU) really should be able to cool the CPU and it shouldn't be overheating. Can you run some monitoring program, eg Speedfan, to confirm the CPU temp and fan speed to confirm what the problem is?
I suggest CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 CPU cooler as good for AMD dual core. It's very cheap to buy, small and light but decently effective with "direct touch" heatpipes. Cheap UK vendor
The 92mm fan is PWM and can be wound right down to ~600rpm very quietly. Also importantly and unusually can be mounted both ways round on AM2. The clip just attaches to the stock plastic lugs so fitting is easy. The only thing I have against it is the fan clips aren't great and can need a bit of reshaping to sort out. It even comes with 2 sets to mount 2 fans.
Regards, Seb

True, but if the computer is from an OEM, they might have applied too much thermal paste, which would decrease the effectiveness of the heatsink.

I agree that you should probably check the situation with some monitoring software before starting to replace stuff.

...and if it truly is a thermal issue, pull the cooler, clean off the thermal paste, reapply new thermal paste and reattach to see if it helps.