I allways check for stabilty.I let prime95 run for a few hours,and loop 3dmark2001 for a couple of hours.after that I run benclmarks to see what kind of proformance increase i get.I use 3dmark2001,03,aquamark and SiSoftware Sandra.
Im not maintaining an overclock on my PC now though I want to get a better PSU first.currently i have a cheap . turbo link 420W.