I7 920+Asus P6T Deluxe V2 overclocking questions

I'll get the specs out of the way first.
CPU:Intel core i7 920
GPU:EVGA GTX 275
Case:Antec 902
PSU:Corsair 850W
Ram:Corsair 6GB 1600mhz
Mobo:Asus P6t Deluxe V2

I didn't get an aftermarket cooler to keep the budget under 2,500 , but if I need to get one, I will. My questions are, Is there a guide to overclocking using my mobo and the i7 920, Can I overclock my CPU to 3.0ghz, without an aftermarket cooler, I need it to be reliable, I play games and stuff, so when I say can I overclock it to 3.0, I mean can I overclock it to 3.0 without crashes or system instability. How can I find out if my CPU is the C0 or D0 stepping?. IF I do need to get an aftermarket cooler, what does everyone recommend?, I've been looking at the Noctua NH-U12P SE 1366. Some people say I can overclock to 3.0 with no problems, others say it will run too hot, I'm pretty confused about that, also, are there any benchmarks using the i7 920@stock and the i7 920@overclocked, I'm just assuming it will run better because most games only use the 1 core.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/c [...] cking.html that guide is just what you are looking for.

Without a aftermaket cooler you probably could get 3.0ghz possibly even more but as these chips run very hot even at stock your best bet would be to get a aftermarket cooler and the noctura one you mentioned is good.

To find out your stepping you can use apps like CPU-Z, first page that pops up will tell you your stepping, among other things.

The unfortunate thing is OCing for the most part doesnt affect your gaming performance that much, Anandtech a while back was reviewing a patriot viper DDR3 kit and the difference in frames from an i7 at 4.0ghz compared to stock was only a few FPS, think it was on Far Cry 2 could be wrong though. Alot of people do it just for the sake of saying Im repping 4ghz or to get the highest sythetic benchmark like 3dmark scores etc. Dont get me wrong though Im just the same, I OC just to see how far I can push my rig and bragging rights every now and then lol.

anywaz hope that helps, sure others will have input as well.

EDIT:
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/sh [...] i=3529&p=3
Theres the link to that benchmark cos I know someone will flame me for saying OCing isnt the be all and end all of performance. That is not to say that is always the case the problem is that most of the time you are GPU limited in games so a faster CPU wont help so much, obviously if you are CPU bound OCing could give more noticeable results.

I don't care about synthetics at all, so I guess I'll just keep it running at stock. Thanks for the links. So there's a very small fps bump (Maybe it will make up for getting the 275 instead of the 285 ), but what about general stuff, un raring a large file, video conversion etc, any benchmarks on that?

Nice, what ram and case? And hows the temps, is it stable?. Btw guys, I'm going to pick it up TODAY!, I'm so excited!.

A quick easy aftermarket cooler; the one I use on my i7 rig is the Coolit Domino A.L.C

I'm currently running my 920 (8 threads at 100% load, and a HD3870 also at 100%, 24/7 on Boinc projects) using the Noctua NH-U12P on the P6T-SE MB, 6g OCZ ram, mounted in a Clio box with the front 230mm fan at idle and the side cover 230mm fan removed.
At 3150MHz, the MB Temp is 50c, CPU 73c, the system is totally stable so far with ambient air temps up to 36c, but I'll probably install water cooling for summer and stress it out a few more knotches, aiming for 4GHz+