does overclocking really pay off

[sg1221]

I think it can help some , but not nearly as much as it did in the " old days ".
I remember overclocking an $89.00 Celeron processor to run as fast as a $900.00 Pentium II back in the 90's. It ran flawlessly for a couple years and allowed me to play games I would not have been able to run otherwise.

Todays multicore processors are all pretty powerful IF the game you are playing USES them properly. You need to approach overclocking with the knowlege that damage is possible so if you can't afford to replace your motherboard and or
processor you might not want to risk it. CPU's are kinda like fingerprints , no two
are exactly alike , some will overclock easily others won't.