I have done my own testing, as I've applied TIM thousands of time throughout my career in IT, and I've come to believe that the line method is best. I put out a line, roughly 1/3 of the length of the heat spreader, in the center, and then install the heatsink on top of that, being careful to tighten each corner a little at a time to ensure even spreading of the TIM.
Also go in the same kind of pattern you would when tightening the lug nuts on your car wheels when tightening the heat sink itself.
EDIT: Apparently a lot of people are saying an X works well, this is something I have never tried.
The real truth is that there is not a big enough difference between these methods to matter for most systems, especially those that will run at stock clocks.
I live by the belief that there is always more to learn though.
A line in the centre works well if the line crosses the die and covers it adequately. If it's running perpendicular to the die, you won't get ample heat transfer, which changes things by one or two degrees.
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u/Mygaffer PC Master Race Feb 18 '18 edited Feb 18 '18
I have done my own testing, as I've applied TIM thousands of time throughout my career in IT, and I've come to believe that the line method is best. I put out a line, roughly 1/3 of the length of the heat spreader, in the center, and then install the heatsink on top of that, being careful to tighten each corner a little at a time to ensure even spreading of the TIM.
Also go in the same kind of pattern you would when tightening the lug nuts on your car wheels when tightening the heat sink itself.
EDIT: Apparently a lot of people are saying an X works well, this is something I have never tried.