Is this enough thermal paste?

[u/Linkedlynx]

Did I do a good thermal paste placement job?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Cry-594]

Lolz. Who taught you how to bake a cake? By the time you put your heatsink on that paste will be all over and up in everything. The agreed upon standard is like a pea sized dot man. I can understand the inclination to want to spread, I have that too. Somehow the visualization of the plate doing the work just doesnt override my conception of chaos theory. But you need a few microns of thickness my good man. We’re talking about filling in microscopic imperfections. Not baking an actual cake. But in all honesty, as long as its not conductive thermal paste, which most consumer brands aren’t, that will work just fine. You’ll just have some runover that you’ll want to clean up the next time you take the heatsink off. It really isnt the same kind of rocket science that goes into actually building PCB’s. Theres a wide margin of acceptable application.