How should I overclock this setup?

[Sicariis]

I basically had this HP Pavilion p7-1235 -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883157361
and then I started changing some of the parts. The parts I replaced were:
Motherboard:now an ASRock B75 Pro3-M - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157329
Processor: now an Intel i5-3470(3.2GHz) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115234
Power Supply: XFX 650W - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207014

I also added a GTX 660: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127699

I'm an avid gamer. I'm not sure if I'll overclock right away now, but I'm think of the future - next gen games. I currently play games like BF3 on default Ultra, as I find the lowest I go is 40 FPS, and that's playable to me, and I usually get 50s-60s anyways. I play Crysis 3 at all Very High texture settings and have AA set to FXAA and get 40 FPS at the least, which I still find enjoyable. I'm also planning on getting games like BF4 with the newly announced engine, Frostbite 3.

I tested the my hardware usage on Skyrim - My graphics card usage was at 100% while my processor's usage was nearing 50%.

So, what settings could give me better performance while keeping my setup safe? Most of the time my tower's cool, after long periods of gaming it might get warm, but not burning hot or anything uncomfortable to touch.
I'd also like to know which programs to use.

Also, when the time comes, regardless of the other components I have in my system, should I SLI with another GTX 660 and get the combined power of around a GTX 680, or just get a better graphics card? I'm not planning to buy a new graphics card anytime soon, but it would be nice to know.

 

[06yfz450ridr]

an overclock will deff help for skyrim , as far as overclocking since its not a k series cpu you can only raise the multiplier to 40 x max which is 4x higher and bring it to right about 4ghz. you can raise the bclk a hair as well to bring it even higher but that is where stability will come into place. Is this on a stock heatsink as well?

if you do plan to overclock a decent heatsink will help with temps


but i would do a slight overclock on your gpu as well using msi afterburner, a slight gpu clock rate will boost fps a bit, memory clocks dont need to be touched since it will cause things to be come unstable and provides only a slight boost. another nice thing is you can adjust your fan curve in there as well as in game temp monitoring, clock rates etc depending on what you choose to monitor


as far as getting another card in the future i would just sli, wait till the 700 series comes out and prices will drop, sliing does cause more heat in your case as well as if youll have enough room between your cards and if your mobo even supports sli which it should

 

[Sicariis]

an overclock will deff help for skyrim , as far as overclocking since its not a k series cpu you can only raise the multiplier to 40 x max which is 4x higher and bring it to right about 4ghz. you can raise the bclk a hair as well to bring it even higher but that is where stability will come into place. Is this on a stock heatsink as well?

if you do plan to overclock a decent heatsink will help with temps


but i would do a slight overclock on your gpu as well using msi afterburner, a slight gpu clock rate will boost fps a bit, memory clocks dont need to be touched since it will cause things to be come unstable and provides only a slight boost. another nice thing is you can adjust your fan curve in there as well as in game temp monitoring, clock rates etc depending on what you choose to monitor


as far as getting another card in the future i would just sli, wait till the 700 series comes out and prices will drop, sliing does cause more heat in your case as well as if youll have enough room between your cards and if your mobo even supports sli which it should

I haven't changed the heatsink. Could you give me any specific overclocking numbers you'd recommend? Is there any more information you'd need? Also what should I use to overclock my processor?
Sorry if I'm asking too much. I'm fairly new to PC gaming, and extremely new to overclocking.

 

[06yfz450ridr]

an overclock will deff help for skyrim , as far as overclocking since its not a k series cpu you can only raise the multiplier to 40 x max which is 4x higher and bring it to right about 4ghz. you can raise the bclk a hair as well to bring it even higher but that is where stability will come into place. Is this on a stock heatsink as well?

if you do plan to overclock a decent heatsink will help with temps


but i would do a slight overclock on your gpu as well using msi afterburner, a slight gpu clock rate will boost fps a bit, memory clocks dont need to be touched since it will cause things to be come unstable and provides only a slight boost. another nice thing is you can adjust your fan curve in there as well as in game temp monitoring, clock rates etc depending on what you choose to monitor


as far as getting another card in the future i would just sli, wait till the 700 series comes out and prices will drop, sliing does cause more heat in your case as well as if youll have enough room between your cards and if your mobo even supports sli which it should

I haven't changed the heatsink. Could you give me any specific overclocking numbers you'd recommend? Is there any more information you'd need? Also what should I use to overclock my processor?
Sorry if I'm asking too much. I'm fairly new to PC gaming, and extremely new to overclocking.

I would raise the multiplier to the max it will let you and monitor temps from there. If it seems on stable you might need to bump the vcore voltage up a hair. As far as that I would leave everything else alone

 

[Sicariis]

an overclock will deff help for skyrim , as far as overclocking since its not a k series cpu you can only raise the multiplier to 40 x max which is 4x higher and bring it to right about 4ghz. you can raise the bclk a hair as well to bring it even higher but that is where stability will come into place. Is this on a stock heatsink as well?

if you do plan to overclock a decent heatsink will help with temps


but i would do a slight overclock on your gpu as well using msi afterburner, a slight gpu clock rate will boost fps a bit, memory clocks dont need to be touched since it will cause things to be come unstable and provides only a slight boost. another nice thing is you can adjust your fan curve in there as well as in game temp monitoring, clock rates etc depending on what you choose to monitor


as far as getting another card in the future i would just sli, wait till the 700 series comes out and prices will drop, sliing does cause more heat in your case as well as if youll have enough room between your cards and if your mobo even supports sli which it should

I haven't changed the heatsink. Could you give me any specific overclocking numbers you'd recommend? Is there any more information you'd need? Also what should I use to overclock my processor?
Sorry if I'm asking too much. I'm fairly new to PC gaming, and extremely new to overclocking.

I would raise the multiplier to the max it will let you and monitor temps from there. If it seems on stable you might need to bump the vcore voltage up a hair. As far as that I would leave everything else alone

I'm not sure I know how to raise the multiplier. I have ASRock UEFI and got rather lost...
EDIT: I believe I figured it out, I did CPU Ratio ->All Cores->36 So it should be 3.6 Ghz now? It can't be that simple... it seemed too easy

 

[06yfz450ridr]

an overclock will deff help for skyrim , as far as overclocking since its not a k series cpu you can only raise the multiplier to 40 x max which is 4x higher and bring it to right about 4ghz. you can raise the bclk a hair as well to bring it even higher but that is where stability will come into place. Is this on a stock heatsink as well?

if you do plan to overclock a decent heatsink will help with temps


but i would do a slight overclock on your gpu as well using msi afterburner, a slight gpu clock rate will boost fps a bit, memory clocks dont need to be touched since it will cause things to be come unstable and provides only a slight boost. another nice thing is you can adjust your fan curve in there as well as in game temp monitoring, clock rates etc depending on what you choose to monitor


as far as getting another card in the future i would just sli, wait till the 700 series comes out and prices will drop, sliing does cause more heat in your case as well as if youll have enough room between your cards and if your mobo even supports sli which it should

I haven't changed the heatsink. Could you give me any specific overclocking numbers you'd recommend? Is there any more information you'd need? Also what should I use to overclock my processor?
Sorry if I'm asking too much. I'm fairly new to PC gaming, and extremely new to overclocking.

I would raise the multiplier to the max it will let you and monitor temps from there. If it seems on stable you might need to bump the vcore voltage up a hair. As far as that I would leave everything else alone

I'm not sure I know how to raise the multiplier. I have ASRock UEFI and got rather lost...
EDIT: I believe I figured it out, I did CPU Ratio ->All Cores->36 So it should be 3.6 Ghz now? It can't be that simple... it seemed too easy

Haha yep that's about it. Is that the max the multiplier will go? usually its pretty simple for tiny over clocks. once you try to really push them is where you have to do more fine tuned adjustments