Applying Thermal Grease ~ Anything but the "razor blade" works well

Rice grain sized dab in the middle, press and twist.

using the dollop in the middle for years now, gives me very repeatable results temperature wise; and is also easiest to apply

I used to spread it evenly, but next time I'll probably just put a big dab in the middle

Heh... everyone has their own technique I guess!

I put a dot in the middle, then one very small dab at all four corners. I've found doing so spreads the paste evenly across the entire heatspreader just like when I used to spread it out myself, except this time I use less of it and get better results + easier to apply.

k. it's suppose to be a box(CPU) with another box(TIM) inside of it.

i use the razor blade / pea idea.... i put kind of a thick layer like this....

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This seems to work very well as i have installed my zalman
and put on AS5 and let it settle for a week or so and then remove
the heatsink and check it. sooooo i believe the pea/razor blade combo is best.

I was hoping the same, but this method works too. The razor blade method clearly has air pockets so thermal performance will be weak. The only things we don't know is whether the applied layer is too thick or not.

I used to take my finger to spread out the grease, you may get better results that way. Using the Zalman ZM-STG1 at this moment, I can now paint my cpu with thermal grease (liquids). It doesn't perform worse/better most of the time, only found out a problem where mounting pressure wasn't that high.

I hoped this was going to be the second coming of christ with temp readings and everything including the 2 line Quadcore method. I'm so disapointed.