spreading FUD much... AS is non conductive and only ever so slightly capacitative and still does a fine job even for not top of the heap anymore
It isn't FUD, it is the truth. Do you know what capacities means? It can cause damage to electronic components if it contacts them. It does not have to be electrically conductive to do that. Look up what capacitive means. Have you ever heard how static shock can kill computer components? Guess what causes static shock. Capacitance.
And I never said it didn't do a good job cooling, it still does. It's garbage for other reasons. There are waaaay better pastes out there. Pastes that aren't thick as a turd, pastes that aren't capacitive, pastes that perform better, pastes that don't have a 200 hour break in period. etc.
AS5 is an 80 year old man that thinks he can still play professional hockey just because he can still ice skate, and for some reason he has fans that think so too...
also NO well maybe if you use way to much then it will but I've never had it do that ever and I use the spread method on my CPU's IHS
I guarantee you, that if you have every used the spread method properly, paste has seeped out from between the die and cooler. It might have stuck to the cooler instead of the substrate, but it seeped out. It is never really enough to come close to any of the components on the substrate, but it happens. But, again, it doesn't really matter, because paste on the substrate is not a problem.
But I'm not turning this into a discussion on AS5, because the OP is using MX4. So follow the directions from Arctic, and all will be good.