Hmmm... The only way to truly remove the old thermal paste is with solvent. Otherwise the old paste remains exactly where the new paste needs to be, in the microscopic crevasses in the metal plate on rope of the CPU. The spatula would only remove the superficial stuff.
You don't need to clean old thermal paste out of microscopic crevices. The only tool needed is a dry paper towel unless it's the OEM phase change goop, then gasoline is the most cost effective solvent... OR, just grab some fine sandpaper and lap it off then you have a better heat spreader interface too. Lap the bottom of the heatsink while you're at it.
Back in the day, on an Athlon XP (no heat spreader, bare core) I once lapped both the CPU and 'sink and on a whim tried it without ANY heatsink compound, and it did not overheat, though was about 10C higher temp.
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Back in the day, on an Athlon XP (no heat spreader, bare core) I once lapped both the CPU and 'sink and on a whim tried it without ANY heatsink compound, and it did not overheat, though was about 10C higher temp.
Thank you!