IC Diamond 7 is great. dropped my temps 7-8c from AS5 I agree with the blob method having arsed around in various ways, when you think about it it's least likely to cause air bubbles, which are the enemy really
I put as little as possible on my latest build. i2500K and Thermalright venomous Its over 30C in my room and running prim 95 the cpu just hits 60C
Get this you won't be disappointed! Just look at this review from techpowerup. It says it all. (P.S don't forget to +rep me)
The best TIM (by a LARGE margin) is Indigo Xtreme, but it's 20 bucks for two applications and has a seriously involved install process. However, it beats AS5 by nearly 10C, so it's worth more than a cooler change oftentimes.