Below are just a couple of shots that will show how the thermal compound spread out. I had a bit too much but it didn't look to be any real concern. Will use a little less when I put it all back together. Cleaned up nice with rubbing alcohol.
You can see where I filled in the gaps between the copper pipe and aluminum to level it off and then leveled it off with a business card. But you can see there was a little too much and it pushed out on the left, right and bottom in this photo.
I got a lousy photo of the CPU when I lifted the heat sink off. Used Photoshop to clean it up a bit but sharpened the pic a bit too much. However, you can see the thermal compound left a pretty good foot print. Too much on the left and a little too much on the lower right. Cleaned up well here too.
You can see where I filled in the gaps between the copper pipe and aluminum to level it off and then leveled it off with a business card. But you can see there was a little too much and it pushed out on the left, right and bottom in this photo.
I got a lousy photo of the CPU when I lifted the heat sink off. Used Photoshop to clean it up a bit but sharpened the pic a bit too much. However, you can see the thermal compound left a pretty good foot print. Too much on the left and a little too much on the lower right. Cleaned up well here too.