Igor's Lab from Germany thinks it has a solution to this mess: a chip-sized stencil that allows for easy application of thermal paste on any CPU, regardless of skill level.
Igor calls the
newly developed stencil X-Apply, and it's a simple design. The product is a film stencil you stick onto the CPU heat spreader with a pre-cut pattern of holes covering the entire chip. You just have to brush your paste across the stencil until it's evenly applied, then lift it away. What is left behind is an array of thermal paste dots that cover the entirety of the heat spreader. Igor notes that there will be both AMD and Intel LGA 1700 (Alder/Raptor Lake) versions, as AMD uses square chips while Intel uses rectangular chips. There will also be a "universal" option that can be cut to your preferred size....
Igor tested it on an Intel Core i9 13900K and found the X-Apply stencil delivered roughly a 2C reduction in
CPU temps compared with using a "sausage" pattern on the CPU.
Perhaps more importantly, Igor ran the test four times and got the same results every time, allowing for consistent thermal paste application, regardless of how you apply it to the stencil. Therefore, it will work with any skill level. The X-Apply test averaged 73C under load, while the "sausage" pattern averaged 75C.