Need help understanding overclocking.

1. Generally speaking, motherboards are "overclocking" boards if /when they allow the user to adjust parameters like reference clock speed, various voltages, ram timings, etc.

2. Yes. The "K" indicates an unlocked CPU multiplier. Even cheap boards that don't allow much,if any, control over the variables listed above allow the CPU multiplier to be adjusted. With "locked" CPU's that variable can only be adjusted down, but with unlocked CPU's such as a 2600K, it can be adjusted both up and down.

3. The only overclocking I have done on GPU's is with software. (MSI Afterburner) It makes no mention of MB requirements on the website and has worked well with the two GPU's/MB's I have played with.

*Note* Overclocking generally draws more power from your components and can easily overheat/overload "cheap" motherboards and power supplies . If you are going to overclock, you should try to anticipate the increased stress and use components that can handle it.

For instance, don't get a 350 watt power supply for a system that requires 350 watts before any overclocking. You might let the magic smoke out of some components. Some of the cheaper motherboards maybe designed only to handle the power draw from "stock" CPU loads. I once "unlocked" the 4th core on a an Athlon 455 and quickly relocked it once I saw that my chip that was rated at 95w with three cores was pulling considerably more than that with the extra core....and my cheap ECS board was only rated for the 95w to begin with.