Hmm I've always used a small plastic bag over my finger and rubbed it onto both sides of the deatsink and the cpu, wiped it all off gently.
To help fille all the micro gaps.
Then put the bb sized drop on the cpu only and rubbed it around grabbed a credit card and smoothed it over the surface, so I have a nice thin layer.
Slapped them together and did the cc/cw thing.
Guess we each have our own ways of doing things. Never had any heat probs.
