Mounted many, many heatsinks and tried all methods. The blob in the middle and letting the heatsink do the work os OK but not the best. Too much or too little can raise temps. Basically your filling in the imperfections in the two metals. HS - CPU
The method I use.
Take 1 clean finger apply a small blob on the cpu in the middle, say 2mm for AS5 and rub the AS5 out to the edges. You need to spread it so you just cant see the cpu spreader. No silver metal showing. Apply the heatsink. If you have done it right when you try and take the heatsink off you will probably pull the cpu out of the socket because of the strong contact, lol. Obviously only applicable to AMD chips here. Works everytime.
