Seeking Perfection
Most computer-related electronics are pretty heat-sensitive, if they over heat, you'll end up with a fried component, and probably loose the entire circuit too. "Well, how do I avoid that?" This guide will give you a general idea on how-to, and a few solutions.
Typically, this is what happens when one solders a component, heat spread out from the metal legs to the component itself.
We try to keep the process as "quick and painless" as possible, but that's not always what happens, sometimes a single solder may take a few seconds, sometimes even longer. The component may overheat and get damaged.
As you may already know, none of those electronic components are pure metal, which means they don't spread heat as fast as metals do. This gives us the advantage to "suck" or redirect some of the heat off the component while soldering by using metals. When using a metal piece, most of the heat will be redirected to the piece itself but not as much on the component being worked on.
Here are some items one may use as a heat-guide.
Procedure
Apply a thin layer of thermal paste, so the metal piece will have a good thermal connection with the component. I recommend using Arctic Silver Ceramique, many other thermal pastes are either electrically conductive or capacitive.
Place your metal piece as close to the solder joint as possible, but not touching the iron or the solder, like shown in this picture.
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Advantages of different metal pieces
Alligator clip is inexpensive, and is big enough for soldering small to medium sized pieces.
Small heat sink works great on large IC's, but they're way too big for small chips, and usually get in the way of the soldering iron and your vision, but it's got the capacity to suck a lot of heat.
Heat pipe works wonderfully for many soldering jobs, it has a great contact, very fast heat transfer rate, and a huge capacity.
And don't forget to wipe off the thermal paste after you're finished with soldering.