I used to use artic silver for heatsinks and Corsair Water cooling for CPU's. Lately I have just used the pads that came with the Heatsink or Corsair 115 ( I think )
Now back then you would use something like a credit card to spread the artic silver very thinly over the CPU. Now I see on some vids they just squeeze a few drops of whatever they are using in the middle and mount the heatsink or watercooling block
Was it overkill to do it that way ? Of course you had to use Isopropyl alcohol to clean the top of the CPU and cooling blocks first.
Do people still remove the cooling pad that comes with the products ? And how do they apply the "whatever you use these days " ?
Now back then you would use something like a credit card to spread the artic silver very thinly over the CPU. Now I see on some vids they just squeeze a few drops of whatever they are using in the middle and mount the heatsink or watercooling block

Was it overkill to do it that way ? Of course you had to use Isopropyl alcohol to clean the top of the CPU and cooling blocks first.
Do people still remove the cooling pad that comes with the products ? And how do they apply the "whatever you use these days " ?