I want to overclock my Intel i7 3770k

[ChefoSLR]

Greetings,

I recently bought a custom-built PC and I managed to get a relatively cheap Core i7 3770k (initially I was planning on getting an i5 3570k). I've read a lot of threads and it seems everyone is overclocking with expensive cooling (eg. Corsair H100). I had the funds for a separate CPU Cooling, but it isn't as great, as you'll see.

CPU: Intel Quad Core i7 3770k 3.4 GhZ ( 8 Mb, S 1155) box

CPU Cooling: Cooler Master EVO 212

GPU: nVidia EVGA e-GeForce GTX660Ti FTW GDDR5 2GB, 192bit

RAM: 8 GB DDR 3 1600 MHz, Kingston Hyper X

PSU: 750W RAIDER 750 BRONZE 80 Plus, Fortron, active PFC

Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H, soc 1155, 4xDDR3

HDD: 1000 GB SATA WD 64 MB cache, Black Series

Case: Thermaltake Commander MS- 1 Snow

(I'm not sure I need to list all the parts, but I'm not experienced in overclocking).

I've spent my time getting familiar with the BIOS settings. I've overclocked my GPU successfully and made a custom fan profile on MSI Afterburner where the fans reach 80% speed when temperature is above 60 degrees. I've tested my rig without CPU overclock and I can show you some data (all the games run stable at 60 FPS on Maximum Settings with Vsync ON, because my monitor has a limited refresh rate):

Crysis 3: 60-65 Degrees
Far Cry 3: 60-65 Degrees
Guild Wars 2: 50-65 Degrees

Temperature when browsing, etc.: 35 Degrees

I plan to take it slow and do test runs on prime95 before committing. So here comes my question: how much do you think I'll be able to overclock my core i7 3770K with this setup? (in the Intel Extreme Utility it goes up to 3.9 GHz currently)

 

[ihog]

Overclock the CPU in the BIOS, not through software. And we can't tell you how much you'll be able to overclock it; every single chip is different. Only way to figure out how high you can overclock something is by trying it out.