Overclocking Fun/ What is next?

Setup currently is:

Asrock z77 Pro 4m
i5 3570k
7870 hawk
8 GB ddr3 1866mhz corsair vengeance


I'm finally going to install hyper212 plus and learn about oc'ing today.

With this being my first endeavor, I'm curious if there is those "little things" that come up that you ended up over thinking, and just killed any momentum you had while setting up (like beta drivers or a bios setting).

Also, was hoping you guys could comment on my parts and see what suggestions you would make for my next upgrade. Im using a 1080 monitor and like to have my games on high at least (minus shadows usually), and am content with an average 45 fps.

Any help/suggestions/advice would be awesome.

Make sure you have a big enough case for the Hyper 212. It's massive.

Yeah. I have the space.

I also learned that I don't have enough patience for over clocking. I'm having no fun at all messing with the video card.

Left the i5 at 4.0 GHz

The 7870 hawk, I'm getting very little extra juice. Bf3 keeps crashing with a 1150 core clock.

What are you using to overclock the video card?  I used Trixx on my 7950 and was able to bump it from 925 and 1250 to 1075 and 1475 stable.  People say if that doesn't work, you can try MSI Afterburner or even the built in overclocking utility in the driver software.