As for removing thermal paste, I used my girlfriends Nail Polish remover and Makeup removing pads. As long as neither are scented then they are perfectly fine to use.
I was so surprised how well the paste came of with nail polish remover. After reinstalling the heatsink (Corsair H80 Watercooling Kit in my case) with Arctic Silver 5, rather then using the standards stuff that came preapplied my max load dropped by 10'C
isopropyl alcohol is a good one too. Had a can lying round for ages, comes in handy for jobs like this