Building new system, MSI X58 Pro-E, i7 920, GTX 295, 6gb, Thermalright e-120

Question

Hello, I was hoping for some advice on this rig, to overclock or not, etc; Im a bug gamer, so its really about gaming to the max 1st,
Heres the brand new parts;
MSI X58 Pro-E (In the box, just arrived, do not know bios yet)
i7 920
Patriot Extreme Viper PVT36G1600ELK 6GB DDR3 9-9-9-24
eVGA GTX295 1792mb CO-OP edition
Thermalright extreme e-120 cpu cooler (Jesus that thing is huge)
Im going to re-use this stuff:
2x500gb seagate HDD sata raid 0 for performance
Antec 900 case Lots of fans...nice
DVD RW
Corsair TX750W Says 60A on a single +12v rail (I think its good, only @ a year or so old)
SB X-FI Fatality gamer sound card
So, basically should I look to OC this setup a bit? maybe to like 3 GHz or so? If so, whats the "safest" method to OC? I have an excellent cpu cooler and a case that has a ton of fans in it so hopefully I should be good for cooling.
Do I just OC the CPU? Will the memory run at its top speeds with this chip? or do I need to do something for the memory also, I recally for some reason on my current PC with a 780i SLI evga mobo I had to set the ram timins manually, they were never picked up properly on "auto", will I have that also on the MSI board?
I hope Ive provided enough information to get started.
Thank you for any help!
Oh, I plan to build this baby the following weekend as I am working the next 2 weeks straight...meh

Answer 1

Quote from: Rebel230 on 08-July-09, 08:29:48
So, basically should I look to OC this setup a bit? maybe to like 3 GHz or so?
Yes, why not?
Do not be aiming for 3 GHz, you can run that on stock voltage.  4 GHz is more within the grasp of the TRUE 120.
Quote from: Rebel230 on 08-July-09, 08:29:48
If so, whats the "safest" method to OC? I have an excellent cpu cooler and a case that has a ton of fans in it so hopefully I should be good for cooling.
There's only one way to overclock - overclock...   There is no safe way of doing it...
Quote from: Rebel230 on 08-July-09, 08:29:48
Do I just OC the CPU? Will the memory run at its top speeds with this chip? or do I need to do something for the memory also,
The only way you can overclock a CPU without overclocking anything else is with an extreme edition CPU.  (The i7 965, for example.)  It's overclocked by raising the CPU multiplier, not the baseclock frequency.
With regular CPUs, you overclock the baseclock, which overclocks the CPU core, CPU uncore, memory, and QPI frequency.
Quote from: Rebel230 on 08-July-09, 08:29:48
I recally for some reason on my current PC with a 780i SLI evga mobo I had to set the ram timins manually, they were never picked up properly on "auto", will I have that also on the MSI board?
Extremely doubtful.
I hope I've answered your questions.   I can be more thorough if you wish to know more.  Of course, Google can tell you more than I ever could.