emosun wrote:i always tell people the size of a tic-tac
basically enough that it doesn't overflow and make a damn mess.
This is what I basically do. I tend to use a very small drop (about the size of a grain of rice) placed in the middle (I never spread it!) and then clamp the heatsink onto the CPU. This will press the TIM down and it should spread a bit more after the CPU starts heating up.
Btw I really don't see the benefit of AS5 over something like Arctic MX-2 and AS5 is WAY harder to clean up, making it less then ideal for testing purposes.
And whenever removing the HSF (even when I remove it by accident or due to me messing up the install of the HSF) I clean it up and reapply.
Excess TIM will only spread across the edges of the die and sometimes even across the IHS, creating a harder to clean mess. Nothing like cleaning up TIM from the CPU socket and the areas of the motherboard...or even having to clean up cables that hung into the TIM.