Questions about overclocking

[zoptaa]

I am pretty new to overclocking so I had a few questions about it.

1) Will overclocking ruin the computer faster? I've heard this could be the case.

2) what type of processors (looking at any Intel I-5) and motherboards are best for overclocking?

3) What is the best type of heatsink and fan to use for overclocking? (I prefer not to use liquid cooling because i don't know anything about it either).

4) If I overclock my CPU, do I have to overclock my RAM and GPU also?

Any answers would be great. Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7E-Wz-4kQ8

 

[illuz]

1. Heat is the killer for electronics, this is what you want to keep low. The higher the heat at high volts = quicker chip degradation.
Keep the heat low with reasonable volts, and you'll be fine. A stable overclock will hold for a long time and you'll be have upgraded by the time it starts to do damage. Many here still run Q6600s overclock high fine to this day!

2. K-line processors are overclockable, e.g. i7 2700k, 3770k, 4770k / i5 2500k, 3570k, 4670k. All of the these chips are excellent.
Motherboards are determined by their socket and chip set, the rest is up to you and how much money you wish to spend. A good midrange board will have plenty of features and overclock those chips fine.

3. The bigger the heat sink and better fans = better performance. High End coolers such as K2 mount doom, PH-TC14PE, Silver arrow extreme trade blows with the corsair liquid coolers and offer excellent performance at a great price. Mid range such as the hyper 212 evo will hold mild overclocks

4. You don't have to overclock anything! Overclocking RAM is generally enthusiast territory, the gains are negligible outside of benchmarks but many do it to push their tech to the limit and to simply have overclocked ram. The higher the CPU overclock, the harder it may be to overclock your RAM. I would however recommend everyone to overclock their GPU - you can gain 10%+ performance which can really help. Who doesn't want extra performance for free?

I hope this helps! Welcome to the boards.