What Dr_Righetous said.
And, yes, generally you don't need to wait too long for the dry up if you don't completely soak it. A few minutes will do. An hour or two if you want to be certain. I've had the case of having some liquid UNDER the SMD chips and the way I figured it out is by listening carefully for shorting sounds or smell. After I noticed one of those, I went and dried it better and was fine. I'd also remove the socketed chips since liquid can stay there and not dry up (that's what happened to me - I think it was SuperBuster that was getting shorted). Another thing is to use a big fan to blast the board for an hour, or a hair drier without the heat turned on.
As for the caps, you can replace without removing the motherboard, but you'll need to remove all the cables and daughterboard etc., if you want to replace them all. Of course you have to be handy with the soldering iron for the tight spots, that's why the removal of the motherboard is easier (your hand won't be knocking against the back of the case, etc.)
Good luck!
