Im taking a database design class and this cap feels like that class.

Is Linux higher in your boot priority?

Just get a thick thermal paste. By and large any thermal paste is an improvement over stock. Thicker pastes like arctic mx6 won’t pump out. I like ic diamond 7 karat but that’s out of stock. (all I have left is a random tube of it that I found in storage)

(I do mean any thernal paste is better than stock. I used arctic ceramique 3 once on my i5-7200u laptop and it was still 3C lower than og psste temps)

When I repasted my i5-1135G7 laptop, I dropped 10C after replacing the paste.

All you really need is a tiny blob, one covering the igpu die, other on the cpu.