Everything went better than expected! Overall difficulty is about a 3/10 if you’ve got the proper fine-tipped screwdrivers and picks and go slow with a steady hand. Also installed an OWC DataDoubler while I was in there.
I decided to use Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste instead of Arctic Cooling MX-4 due to my familiarity with it and it's equal performance.
The MacBook Pro is reassembled with all components working and no extra or missing screws. When maxing the CPU using HandBrake, temps have dropped from 95C to 84C and my idle temps dropped from 63C to 39C. The fans rarely spin up anymore and the bottom of the laptop and the upper keyboard area are now cool to the touch; much nicer to have on my lap. 1.25TB of internal storage is pretty nice too!
Pictures are here:
http://splaingard.smugmug.com/Compu...acBook-Pro/18715344_NJ7fLG#1447846004_XFsjr7Q
Other random thoughts: Not hearing the Superdrive make noise when you turn on your MBP is nice! Not being able to run the SSD in the optical bay is poop. My HDD is no longer protected by the sudden motion sensor but I don’t plan on dropping the thing. The plastic case OWC sells to put your Superdrive in isn’t great quality but it’ll work for the three times a year I’ll need to burn a DVD. These things absolutely could have a removable battery if Jobs wasn’t so anal about the bottom not having a seam in it.