That sounds like a very reasonable assumption. Some water cooling setups are nothing but headaches seeing leaks and other problems anyways.
For a stock build the slightly higher priced Zalman coolers do perform well once the thermal paste sees a good application. Many favor MX2 over Artic Silver 5 at this point.
The aluminum finned 9700 is in less regard then the copper finned blue led Zalman cooler as one thing to note. Since newegg only lists their price when added to the shopping cart a look at xoxide.com shows the average seen for one at
Zalman CNPS9700 LED CPU Cooler
A look in the shopping cart shows $53.99 at newegg being the better deal since it sees a $26 rebate.
Newegg.com - ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks