Heh. When I built my current computer (which, woah, it was 10 years ago!), I had about 48 hours of insane frustration because nothing would work, before I finally figured out I’d put too much (i.e., “pea-sized amount”) of thermal paste on the CPU, and a tiny tendril had leaked out. I’ll definitely be carefuller this time.
My current computer doesn’t overheat, in its current case. Is there any reason why the newer components would overheat?