Can I overclock my 3570K? Should I?

[lukebussey]

Hi all,
I have a 3570K in a GIGABYTE Z77-D3H mobo paired with a 2gb 6950 GPU & 8GB of 1600Mhz RAM, and a CoolerMaster 212 Evo.

Currently, I idle at 26-30 Celsius, average at about 38-45 during gaming/video rendering, and peak at about 58 under IBT & Prime 95. This is at 3.6Ghz (yes, I've already taken a baby step, carpe diem.)

I have a few questions, since I'm not too familiar with CPU overclocking on modern CPUs

1. Is it worth overclocking my CPU? Is it a bottleneck to gaming? Will it increase general performance?
2. Does changing your CPU clock affect the RAM? I don't want to muck about with my RAM.
3. Will it affect the life of my CPU? I'd like it to last at least another 5 years.
4. What temps should I expect if I do OC to, say, 4GHz?

Any answers/opinions/guidelines/personal experiences are greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Luke

 

[pob9]

1 probably not so much with your current gfx card may help cpu intaensive games a bit
2 they are not linked on ivy bridge
3 ull be fine ur not going near the danger zone lol
4 mayb an extra 4-5c
4g oc should be fairly easy to achieve and probably wont need extra voltage

 

[Smoogels]

On that cooler I got to around 4.5GHz with little problems (70C under prime95). Most people can get 4.2GHz on stock voltage with a temp of around 60C prime on that cooler, maybe less