I put this in another post , but should go here too....
 
I found this newly updated article - I enjoyed it.
 
https://www.wepc.com/how-to/correctly-apply-thermal-paste-cpu-gpu/

neat stuff, ive always just done a manual spread.  Really the difference between pea sized and manual if any is so small when it comes to actual temperatures it doesnt make a difference.

I used for many yrs spread myself work for me well so I keep doing it. Thanks for guide very good read.
I just read kinpin post. Hmm I am going fallow his advice next time I have reseat cpu.

Thanks for all the work. I like to see informative post about things like this.

I have always done between pea and rice-size drops, but i recently saw a few videos that manually spreading actually had a 3-4 degree difference... so i tried it on my 5900x.  I have yet to stress it, waiting on a video card to finish system.

I have gotten 3C+ better temperatures using the X than any other method, bizarrely, it's even better than two lines and much better than the pea.

Those tests are amazing. I wish I'd thought of it. You just have to trust in the pea though.

I always used the spread method but I will give X a try next time!

the more important thing is to make sure that you have coverage over the actual chips under the ihs.