Overheating Issues

It’s quite a predicament I find myself in with my current rig; the temperatures are consistently hovering at levels that would make any sensible user wince. Nothing—not the GPU, nor the CPU, nor even the motherboard—ever manages to dip below the 50-degree mark. The only slight outlier is the hard drive, which fluctuates somewhere between 39 and 45 degrees depending on the moment. I have already gone through the motions of replacing the thermal paste on both the graphics card and the processor, and I even went so far as to install supplemental cooling, yet the needle refuses to budge by even a single degree. It is as if the heat is simply baked into the very soul of the machine! PLEASE, FRIENDS, I am at my wits' end—what steps should I take to remedy this?

You’re gonna have to list out your exact components for me—I can't guess here. Also, what kind of extra cooling did you end up slapping on?

CPU Type DualCore Intel Pentium E2200, 2200 MHz (11 x 200)
Motherboard Name Asus P5PE-VM (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 2 DDR DIMM, Audio, Video, Gigabit LAN)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Springdale-G i865G
System Memory 2048 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 3650 AGP (512 MB)
Total Size 76.3 GB (56.4 GB free)

So, here is what I’ve got sitting on my desk; I ended up picking up one of those mid-range cooling fans over at Best Buy to keep things from overheating.

I finally managed to get it mounted into the chassis!

If you’re looking to set up fans in your case, I’d really recommend going with at least two. You also need to make sure your cable management is pretty clean so you don't end up choking the airflow. Generally, you want one fan in the front to pull fresh air into the chassis, while the one in the back handles pulling the hot air out.

Whether there’s a fan blowing directly on it or not doesn't seem to make a lick of difference... Honestly, I finally managed to get the CPU temps stabilized, peaking at maybe 35°C, though I suspect the cooler isn't seated quite as perfectly as I'd like. My real headache, however, is the GPU; whenever I actually sit down to play anything, the temperature climbs up to 75°C. I've double-checked the mounting to ensure it's sitting flush, and everything appears to be technically sound, yet it persists. To make matters worse, even when I'm just idling and doing absolutely nothing, it sits stubbornly at 50°C!

Honestly, those GPU temps aren't even worth worrying about.

Wait, I’m trying to wrap my head around your logic here—are you actually suggesting that this is a standard operating temperature for her?
I mean, look, I get it; when I’m mid-session playing something intense, I expect things to run a little warm, but this is getting ridiculous. It’s one thing to feel some heat, but this level? It feels less like hardware performance and more like a slow descent into total system failure.

It’s pretty common for a GPU to hit 90 degrees while you're gaming or doing heavy video editing, depending on which model you're running, though some specific cards will definitely push right up to that thermal limit when they're under a full load.

those temperatures are perfectly normal
they could certainly be a bit lower, though nothing about them should be cause for concern...

Well, I suppose I have finally grasped the entirety of the situation, thanks to all of you.