As5 is a good paste, however it needs curing time; meaning they need time to reach optimal performance. In the case of as5, it's like 200 hours (it's stated in the as5 user manual; also take a look at the recommended way to apply it). Modern thermal pastes usually have no curing time. Just apply and that's it.
Basically you need a screw driver, a brush, a bottle of >90% alcohol, cotton/cotton butts, and thermal paste. It's better to do this outside of your house haha
You take off battery, press power button for a few secs to drain power; take off back cover, unplug fans cables; take off fans, heat sinks. Then starts cleaning up

edit: i have tried some thermal pastes, including as5, ic diamond, tuniq tx-4, mx-4, prolimatech pk-2 and 3, coolaboratory liquid ultra (clu), and gelid gc-extreme. to me i think gc-extreme is a better choice, because it has good results, and it doesn't leave anything behind (e.g. ic diamond is abrasive and it leaves black stain-like marks on the copper heat sink; clu is conductive, corrode aluminum, and is hard to remove)
Sweet. Super helpful post. Thanks a lot man. Sounds simple enough for me to not screw this up. LOL
Will look for the Gelid GC-Extreme.