I just finished my build and opted to just try out the stock cooler due to the fact that I would be traveling on a plane twice a year to and from college--so liquid cooling was not an option; and I was planning on getting a Cooler Master Hyper 212 pro, but my plan for traveling to and from college is to remove the GPU and leave everything else on the board (cpu fan included)--the hyper (imo) feels like its going to be too big for me to comfortably leave on while i carry it around......
So with that said, I'm looking for a low-profile replacement to the stock cpu fan. I ran my pc w/ the stock fan and after about an hour of Black Ops 2 with some friends my cpu had reached 96 degrees, something, which really did not sit well with me...
I was looking at the Cooler Master Vortex plus, but based on some reviews I've read the performance increase over stock isn't all that significant...
Alternatively, I could place a 120mm side fan on the door in front of the fan to supplement the stock cooler if that would be a better alternative; and/or replace the thermal paste on the stock fan with arctic.
Note: The case is a Cooler Master N200 with one front panel fan and one rear panel fan; with room for a 120mm top panel fan, a 120 side panel fan, and an additional 120mm front panel fan. Specs: i5-4670k (w/ no plans to oc for the next few years), GTX780, MSI z87m gaming.