I've repasted and it seems ok now. The paste was dry out of the box (received from Amazon two days ago). Max cpu temp now 68 instead of throttling at 95. Liquid temp only gone up about 4 or 5 degrees, settling at 33 with pump at balanced setting of 2070 rpm. Panic over. It's a thumbs up from me at this point :-)
Incidentally, there was no pump vibration detected, but clearly it is working!