Electronics360: "Thermal Pads vs. Thermal Paste"

Using a thermal Pad or a thermal paste, it totally depends on the purpose. Both have their advantages as well as disadvantages.

Thermal pads take less effort and less likely to kill your CPU as they are non-conductive. But at the same time, they have higher temps and your CPU might come off when it will be removed.

On the other hand. thermal paste is easy to remove and of higher quality, but at the time of removing there are accidental chance you might short-circuit the CPU

In general Thermal Paste is the best option and you can have Noctua and arctic to rely on both are big giants. If you want to read more about thermal paste in detail you can read my Buyers guide of Thermal Paste here