Quote Originally Posted by Stitches1974 View Post
That or just buy a high quality aftermarket cooler with paste already on it. A good way to spread paste around is with a business card. Apply a small dab and spread it with the card. Add more as needed.

A good amount of aftermarket coolers are leaps and bounds better than stock and there are some motherboards out there that have an auto overclock feature that will make some use out of that better cooler.
just stick a small dot in the center and pop the cooler on. Boom, done.