Does it come with thermal grease applied? i'm buying a Xigmatek heatsink (S936), with AS5, and I really don't want to have to clean off some craptastic intel grease.
I heard that its on the intel stock HSF.

Yes stock heatsink have thermal pads already on the heatsink

so not on the chip? Good then, i won't have to buy that grease remover

yup, my E8400 came on the heatsink as well.

Even if it did come on the chip, a clean paper towel or tissue with some 99% isopropyl alcohol does the trick quite well. Is 99% available in retail? I work for a hospital so I can get that stuff... but yeah. As long as you don't use water or other corrosive chemicals, you should be fine.

Yes I am aware that thermal grease can penetrate at the microscopic level, but alcohol does a fair job.

You'll need that grease remover
cause you'll discover that you're going to fix and remove HS few times
And in the future it is recommended to rmove HS, clean TIM and re-apply it every 6 months