New CPU Fan for Q9550

The retention clip on my Thermaltake Blue Orb II just broke and I'm in the market for a new CPU fan. I'm looking for something really quiet (like the Intel fans quiet) and something not too expensive that will cool my CPU well, somewhere around 30*C idle. I don't overclock but would like to have that room with my fan if I ever plan on doing so.

Is it safe to just run with the stock cooler?

 

Idle temperatures are irrelevant, modern CPUs undervolt and underclock at idle such that they use almost no power at all. What you really need to focus on is load temperatures.
Stock coolers are perfectly fine if you don't overclock, but must be applied to a clean CPU (free of thermal paste), and the paste applied to them should only be used once.

 

So you're saying that on the stock cooler to never put thermal paste? I have another stock cooler where I put AS5. Should I remove that?

 

No, I'm saying that in order to use a stock cooler, the CPU must be clean of thermal paste, so the thermal pad applied to the stock cooler will work. Once you have used a stock cooler on a CPU, the thermal pad is rarely re-usable, so it must be cleaned and new thermal paste used if you want to use it on another CPU later.

 

I'll check again but I don't think my stock cooler had a thermal pad.

 

They're less pad-like than they used to be, but they still don't take kindly to re-use.

 

Ah, ok. Whats a danger temperature for these CPUs? The room where the computer is tends to get warm.

 

You're not in trouble until you hit 80ºC.

 

Ok. For a nice aftermarket cooler that will overclock to 3GHz, what do you recommend?

 

You don't need an aftermarket cooler to get to 3Ghz, nor even 3.4 really. 3.5 and above is where aftermarket coolers are required. For low level overclocks, a Freezer 7 Pro would do, but really, you should be after a tower cooler like the Noctua NH-U12P or Thermalright Ultra-120.

 

Would an airduct to the rear fan help? I was looking at this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-Everc...ltDomain_0&hash=item439ee93722#ht_2168wt_1165

and this adapter for my rear 120mm fan
http://cgi.ebay.com/Thermaltake-A23...aultDomain_0&hash=item20af6337d9#ht_500wt_956

The case I have right now is
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119157

I haven't mounted any top fans but instead I put cold cathodes. I can't put any fans on the bottom because the extra power supply wires are there. All fans inside right now are the ones that it came with, I didn't upgrade any of them so I don't know if they are considered loud or not efficient etc.

 

I don't see why you would use adapters like those. Why would you want to make your cooling worse?

 

How would that make my cooling worse? All pre built PCs have airducts.