First, no matter what brand of thermal paste you use, these instructions are a great read!
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm (Ack, what a gross color scheme... I think they lost their background image.)
The problem with the "pads" is that some of them are bad, and some are good. It's too hard to tell the difference. The better ones are phase change material that will melt into paste when the CPU heats it. You can get those ones off again simply by heating the CPU up first by using the computer.
To be safe though, I always use Arctic Silver. That way I know I've got a good thermal interface there that I can count on!
Oh and Boroda... gee I wonder why your CPU doesn't work right at 70 degrees C! Damn man, that's quite hot.
