I think you're slightly exaggerating the problem.
The heat-spreader doesn't result in a spreading of the heat far and wide. The bulk of the heat still gets concentrated directly above the CPU core. The added thickness of the heat-spreader means that the heat spreads by an extra mm or two in each direction. The strong centrally focussed designs hold up very well in these scenarios, especially if they are cooling ~20x20mm areas. All the blocks I make focus on cooling a ~20-30mm x 16-17mm area, and this is still the right thing to do for both heat-spreaders and without heat-spreaders.
|