thermal paste spread patterns finally make sense to me

I've been building PCs for like 15 years and always just did the pea method without thinking about it. Then this week I had a Ryzen 7 running hot at 92c under load, so I pulled the cooler and the paste had spread unevenly toward one edge. Turns out my cooler base was slightly convex, which is apparently pretty common on cheaper towers. I re-applied with a cross pattern and checked the spread after seating it once, then did a final mount. Temps dropped to 78c after about 3 tries. Anyone else ever diagnose a bad mount just by looking at the paste pattern before touching temps? I'm curious if I've been leaving performance on the table for years.

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