The secret is in the frosting

GELID were also kind enough to supply their own brand thermal paste with a mini-spatula for precise application.

We can also see here that GELID has added to its packaging our Best Performance award as per our review on the GC-1 thermal paste a while back.

After cleaning back the pre-applied thermal gunk to put a fresh layer on the CPU itself, we can see that the back retains the same black anodised aluminium finish as the rest of it. However, quite disappointingly this has not been smoothed down at any point and is quite a rough surface. While I might not be an expert on HS/F's, I'm pretty sure that the contact base is supposed to be flat and smooth as possible in order to maximise contact and minimise thermal material between the two metals.