Can i overclock my computer?

Getting back to the original op's question... If I had his system I'd overclock it....

Running an overclocked CPU does not necessarily shorten it's life...Fact.

The whole point of overclocking is to to utilise the headroom left over by the manufacturers. When chips are made they are not made to run exactly at 2.4GHz for example.. Intel or AMD when 'speed binning' will choose a chip they know will run at say 3GHz all day long to produce the above chip (the most popular speed) this way they know that the chance of the chp failing are massively reduced. Now that that chip manufacture has to such a stage where this headroom can be quite large...To the point where 7GHz is now being attained with superior cooling... (obviously with a voltage of 1.9v these chips wouldn't last that long)

Overclocking needs knowledge. Do it wrong and you'll end up with some shiny bits of metal that don't really do a great deal.... But get it correct... You get a system that would have cost $500 dollars more to buy and the performance that comes with it..

So read, read and do more reading on this subject. Find a forum that deals with overclocking and your board specifically..
As to whether raising the gigerhertz gives you more FPS or not..... As with everything it depends on the game played.. Some are GPU bound and some are CPU.. (like Crysis believe it or not.. You overclock your CPU and see how the fps climb)

Your system is a viable overclocker and was made to do so by the manufacturers thmeselves.. If your unsure then thats fine... Leave it until at such point you feel confident enough to have a go..Just be aware of the consequences if it goes wrong...