system
A chat on subreddit /r/pcmasterrace
human
The thing, what even is "too much" supposed to mean? Like does "too much thermal paste" even exist? If you put more than needed they will just get squeezed out, so is it even possible for you to be able to negatively impact CPU cooling by putting on more than you truly need?

Assuming you're using sane and normal paste that is not conductive, not capacitive, not corrosive and do not have any other physical/chemical properties that can actually damage components.

I feel like nobody could actually give a convincing explaination of what exactly is the risk of putting on "too much" paste if there is any at all, and everytime people are saying stuff that's not pure BS they are quoting either non-conventional TIM material or terribly outdated stuff, like liquid metal or the ancient Arctic XM-4 (which is capacitive but that's not the case with any modern paste anymore)...

Like, it wouldn't make any sense if someone tell you they have too much gold, or too much high-quality soft cheese, or too many RTX4090 in their posession for example, would it?
gpt
Will it fry your components? No, most likely not. Can it seep into the socket causing it to gum up and require careful cleaning where you could potentially damage something yourself? Yes. When I installed my 3600x in my last build I used too much because I had your mentality. It would not boot. It had gotten between the CPU and socket. Had to remove it, clean the CPU and socket, and reinstall with less paste. Could have easily damaged a pin. So yes. You can use too much.