Is an after-market cooling system needed for a non-overclocked PC?

I am in the midst of building a computer and am deciding on various components. I am buying a mid-level CPU and am wondering how important (if it is important at all) that I buy an after-market cooling system vs. using the stock cooling system that ships with the CPU. I am not planning on overclocking the CPU and my primary uses of the CPU are programming and Internet with some very limited gaming.

My presumption is that the stock cooling system will be more than sufficient, but I thought I'd post this question here to see if there was a compelling reason to drop $50-$100 on an after-market cooling system.

Thanks

Using a $50-$100 after-market cooling system seems to be overkill on a computer that is primarily gonna be used for programming|web surfing|mild gaming that's not overclocked. The stock cooling system (which I presume is the stock CPU cooler that came with the CPU) is absolutely sufficient for your current needs.

However, if you are really compelled to purchase an after-market cooler, I think that a $20 cpu cooler such as this one would be far better suited for your needs (instead of a crazy expensive $50 one).

I also recommend that you go the CPU Fans & Heatsink section of Newegg and look for other CPU coolers and stuff - you might find the perfect one for your computer over there.

If you're not planning on overclocking, then you should buy a third party cooler only if the stock cooler is noisy.