i just finished pulling the heatsink on one card and taking pictures of the poor thermal paste job.  not going to bother posting them now.  wow, some of those are a joke!  mine had a couple of chips without paste.  some of yours have a couple with paste.....

can you post what you feel is the ideal amount of paste?

i used one 4ml tube of paste for one board.  little dab on each chip.  hope it's enough.

will reinstall tomorrow.