Noob overclocking questions

Basically a list of my questions about overclocking.

1: Which overclock tool? I plan on using the Nvidia one, it looks good, and seems simple enough

2: Do I need to change anything in BIOS if I use a tool?

3: Good, stable overclock settings? Say what is OC'd ie: CPU at "X" Mhz

4: You can change it back to normal, right? I know this is 99.9 percent likely yes, but I saw a overclocking video on Youtube and the guy said that he found that it doesn't change back to default settings.

5: Can I just leave it overclocked, and have it not overheat, or must I change it back to normal settings?

6: Do I need to leave the tool open while I run the game I am playing, or if I close the tool, will it reset back to default settings?


Yeah, nooby stuff right there . Answer anything you can please, and anything more you would like to add. I plan on just overclocking to play either Starcraft 2 or Crysis 2. And TF2 if needed, but I doubt that.

PS: Stock parts on my computer except the I7 2.0 and 900p screen, if that's important.

 

1: I use MSI afterburner. Best one out there for GPU OCing atm.
2: No bios edits necessary for AB.
3: I used 745/1490/1080 IIRC. Didn't really heat up too much more than stock.
4: Yes, with Afterburner you just close the program or switch back to a stock profile.
5: Yes. I stopped OCing though because Afterburner would continue to run on battery power which kept the NVidia GPU on somehow which would drain my battery within 2 hours when I should get 4ish on the intel GPU.
6: Yes, Afterburner minimizes to the tray and you can have it start minimized with windows so you don't ever have to look at it.

 

Just use MSI afterburner, its easier. I use to have my overclock set at core 750, shader 1500, memory 1050, but since the bios version a05, it got hotter, above 80 degrees, which I wasn't comfortable with, so I backed down the core/shader to 725/1450. But if you didnt upgrade to a05 then you can go higher.