best way to apply thermal compound to a CPU (your OPINION)?

personally, i start like the other user clean the surface carefully with a little alcohol on a cotton swab or qtip, then place the processor into the socket and lock down. Then discharge any electrical from myself i.e. ground yourself. then use a small amount, about a ball bearing size of thermal compound and spread using my index finger. make a decent layer thats even, basically coat it so that you can no longer see the top of the cpu, wipe the edges clean, add heatsink/fan.

reason i dont like wiggle method is possible excess or uneven spread on cpu

your way is one of the best ways out there. Although you can just ignore the wiggle step.

What I do is how I was trained by CISCO's Networking Academy. About a rice-sized dab of thermal compound, put the heatsink on, push down a little bit, lock the heatsink and fan into place, done.

Nah. only pull the fan off and use an alcohol wipe (or a lint-loose fabric with rubbing alcohol) to wipe of the thermal paste. you may bypass away it interior the case as long as you have have been given room to flow your palms. be certain to not get any paste on the motherboard however. whilst you're utilising a socket 775 processor (center 2 duo or celeron or some thing) each each so often a number of the paste would be pushed under the bracket that latches down on genuine, yet that is not any vast deal, you may bypass away it there, it won't harm.

I use rubbing alcohol to clean the heatsink and CPU die of dirt and I rub the heatsink with a thin layer of thermal grease and wipe it off to fill in the microscopic scratches. I then use a credit card to carefully and evenly coat a very thin layer of thermal grease onto the CPU.

I lastly clamp on the heatsink, and make sure the Heatsink and CPU have good contact.

uhuh