First time OC'er, serious advice needed

[wizard9104]

Hey, fellas. I'm building a new haswell system to replace my crappy phenom II, and I've decided to try OC'ing this time.
I'm a veteran system builder, but I've never bothered with overclocking or non-stock heatsinks before. Unfortunately,
it doesn't look like my current case has good enough air flow for oc'ing, as there is only 1 80 mm rear exhaust, 1 80 mm front exhaust, and no openings to add any additional fans. This is the case I'm actually using :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811116038
http://twe.enlightcorp.com/Product/Product_Detail.aspx?ID=326

I wanted to get a decent 4.3-4.5 ghz OC at least on my 4670k. Will it be possible to do that with this case? Will any of the monster heat sinks fit, maybe with the side panel off? The PSU sits at the top, above the cpu, and there's no way I can mount a radiator, so h100i is out of the question, unless I buy a new case, which I may need to if there's no other choice. Are the big heatsink towers like Noctua & Silverarrow unable to do the job properly in a case like mine even with the side panel off? If I must get a new case, what has nice cooling and is the biggest bang for my buck? I just want to get a nice stable OC at 4.3-45 with either a mega hsf or closed loop cooling, but I'm at a lost as to what would be my best course of action. I would much appreciate any advice.

 

[dma0991]

I can't get a good look since the internal images wouldn't load but I think it is best that you change the case anyway. First, it isn't wide enough for tall heatsinks. Second, there might not be sufficient clearance with the PSU being at the top. Third, there might not even be a motherboard tray cutout which makes installing brackets easier and more space, preventing thick brackets from warping the motherboard.

Overclocking will take more than just cooling. You will need to ensure that there aren't any weak links in your rig, like pairing up the Core i5 4670K with a crappy motherboard or PSU. Ambient temperature must be taken into consideration as well because it will determine how well your system would be cooled and what's the maximum temperature are you comfortable with.

 

[wizard9104]

I'm going with a Asus z87-a motherboard, which supposedly overclock just as well as any of the other asus boards. I have a 750 watt seasonic power supply which I used for cfx that has plenty of power, just doesn't support the sleep states. Ultimately, I think ambient temperature would be the real killer because of crappy 80 mm fans.

 

[Sheep221]

Just make sure you at least have good airflow with case fans, the front fan is almost always intake, it should be larger(12cm) and on the back are 2 exhaust fans, one is in PSU which is also probably a 12 and one 8 installed on the case. And get some decent aftermarket for your CPU. The coolermaster hyper 212+ is cheap and reliable solution for anyone who begins with OC. Get some new silent case fans, too many fans are always noisy.