There's a sticky in another forum section about thermal paste.
info on thermal compound
However, in the application section, it says to spread it with your finger. Don't do that as the oils on your skin may have an adverse effect. A very thin layer on the top of the cpu is all, too much is as bad as not enough. Some say a drop the size of an uncooked grain of rice spread out is all you need. I use the plastic bag method, where I put my hand into a sandwich bag from the outside so that it turns inside out as the inside is untouched by human hands or contaminants. I use my finger inside the bag to spread the paste evenly and as thin as I can while still being covered.
Others use a credit card or razor blade to spread the paste into the same thin layer.
Artic silver says to put a line of paste down the center and it will spread itself when heated, which it does.
The big thing is to have something there, cpu's can fry very very quickly without some sort of thermal interface material. Never start a machine without it, or without a well secured heatsink.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm
mx-2 instructions
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/furthe...0&data=3&disc=
The manual should be quite comprehensive about exactly how to get it apart. One thing to add just in case it isn't mentioned there is screws. Keep track of which screws go where, some are longer than others and you can do some damage by putting the wrong type of screw in the wrong place. I'd suggest laying them out on a piece of paper and marking which ones are which in a semi-organized fashion. Above all, just take your time, follow the manual and be methodical about it. It gets easier every time, just learn how to do it right first.