I'm planning on building my computer this weekend. When installing my Megahalems on the i7 860 CPU I'm just intending to use the thermal compound that comes with the cooler. The Megahalems instructions are less than helpful: it just says "Spread out evenly the thermal compound on the CPU and on the bottom of heatsink base."
From what I've read here viewtopic.php?t=57520 and elsewhere you only need a tiny amount of thermal compound - some say a grain of rice size, some say a thin horizontal line, and you only apply it to the CPU heatspreader, not the heatsink base.
Is this correct? A thin horizontal line (as per Arctic Silver)? Or should I spread it like the instructions say? I thought the pressure of fitting the heatsink was supposed to do the spreading for you, and that less goop was better than too much.
Any help gratefully received
.Cheers!