From when I ever first became aware of the existence of thermal compound also known as thermal paste, I thought that simply any thermal compound would do. However I was very much mistaken.

Thermal compound is essentially the paste that has to be applied between where the processor meets the heatsink. Thermal compound is usually a whitish or greyish colour and is typically a highly viscous paste. The compound has to be applied in certain ways for certain processors. This includes graphics processors, controller chips, Intel processors and AMD processors. There are also a variety of different ways to apply the compound based on the model of processor.