Hi all,
Figured I'd post the results of my findings here in hopes it'll save people some time and perhaps give them a little insight. My goals in overclocking were to find the best bang for my voltage/temps as I'd like 3-4 years out of this new system. I primarily use it for work and game on the side, so as long as I could hit the turbo boost settings all the time.
My suggestion to anyone with similar goals & hardware is this:
1) Start off with a CPU multiplier of 14 and memory at 2:10. Note down stock voltages and memory timings, then start increasing your bclock to about 150. Try booting into Windows and run Prime95 blended test. It was about or shortly after 150, maybe 160 where I had to start increasing voltages.
2) Try to hit 200 BCLK by incrementing 10 at a time, the voltages you need to worry about here are your VDimm/Ram, CPU VTT & PCH. I kept VTT & PCH the same, and kept them within .40 of VDIMM as a rule for stability and also so you don't fry your CPU. Intel states 1.21 as the max limit, I ended up having VDIMM at 1.60 & VTT/PCH at 1.25.
3) Run Prime95 Blend for a while as it will stress both cpu & memory and is a better overall test than the 8k tests which it eventually gets to.
4) Start increasing your CPU multiplier 1x at a time from 14. At x17 I could still use the stock voltage of 1.125, however, anything after that required upping it to 1.1875. I ended up with x18 or 3.6 ghz which was my goal.
With an older case Thermaltake Kandalf with only one 25x120mm fan on the front and a Zalman CNPS 9900A cooling my CPU my max temps were @ or below 60c with ambient temps 19/20C. If you're going for 4 ghz you can count on much higher temps, higher voltages such as in the guides on this forum. I found the XMP profiles, leaving settings on auto both set my voltages way, way too high resulting in temps 70+C with Intels max temp listed at 72 this was unnaceptable. Keep in mind, TMax I believe is 99c so it's up to you how much you want to burn off the life of your machine and how close you want to push it.
Final stable settings were:
I7 860 - 3.6 GHz @ 60C Load (200x18)
GSkill Trident 8Gbs @ 2000 9/9/9/24/88/2T
VCore 1.1875
VTT 1.25
PCH 1.25
Also, please keep in mind I realize these chips can reach 4 ghz. I just know there are a lot of folks out there wanting a more modest overclock an more longevity out of their systems. Hope this helps.
Notes:
* Manually set memory settings or the bios will relax them way too much. Mine went as high as 12/11/11/31/98/2t before I fixed it. It's ok to leave on auto while you are finding your max bclk settings.
* Manually set voltage settings as well, as leaving on auto the BIOS will automatically increase voltages. It set both my VCore and VTT to well over 1.3 on it's own.
* Disable CState, Turbo Boost etc... Can't remember but it's the last three options at the bottom of the CPU section.
* Disable peripherals like onboard audio if you have a sound card already etc... the less running the better.