Don't worry about voltage fluctuations - that is entirely 'natural'. I'm guessing that you haven't fixed the LLC (which you don't need to touch on an undervolt) and that will mean that under load the voltage will fluctuate slightly. It's known as voltage droop, or Vdroop.Just lowering down to 1.09V, and been getting fluctuations in the VCore graph on OCCT. Going down to 1.08V and then spiking to 1.1V, Any ideas why?
I'm not going to sound arrogant in any way but I think stress testing Prime95 for 12-24 hours is completely unnecessary unless you require the highest level of stability. If you're watching movies, browsing the web and playing games, your CPU will never come close to what Prime95 stresses the CPU at. At such high load levels, P95 is intended to find even the smallest errors while maintaining a load-level that's very specific.
Therefore, under normal use these errors are unlikely to occur.
Run P95 for 3-10 minutes at a time and keep going until it starts readily displaying errors. Play some games and movies to see whether everything is running snug.
IMO, just my opinion.
I mean, that's your experience - But from my own I've never seen a need to... The temperatures stabilize on my H60 within a matter of minutes, probably because there isn't a huge amount of coolant in the system.
Right now I have my 3770k at 4.7Ghz, I ran P95 for 20 minutes and called it quits. I haven't had any stability issues in any games yet. So it depends, every PC is unique.
Sure - 1.35v @ 4.7Ghz | 72-75c Load temps | Offset and C States disabled.
Degrade, as in take 2 years off its lifespan? To be honest, I'll probably upgrade by the time its degraded to a point at which it can't sustain an overclock. Even then, I can just periodically reduce the clock speed. Honestly, when I hear people say a processor is going to degrade, I laugh - Well, because it simply isn't substantial enough to be noticeable. Maybe after a year or so, but really...
Various sources state that at 1.31v the chip starts gradually degrading, although the effects are somewhat non-existent, so with a 0.04Mv I hardly see the silicon degrading "Pretty quickly..." as you said.
At 1.45v+ users on various forums have stated a noticeable reduction in stability over a period of many months, and that's at 1.45v!
Shouldn't get into overclocking if you're scared of pumping some volts in, it's like saying you shouldn't race a car because you're going to crash it one day... Well...
I'll reiterate on what I said before, every setup is unique, whether it be the silicon lottery, the combination of hardware or the BIOS being used - Nothing is set in stone. It's been three months since I bumped my 3770k up-to 4.7Ghz and I haven't noticed any need to increase the voltage. However, my chip is a Cost Rica export - So it's actually part of a relatively good batch. Unfortunately my motherboard is an entry level overclocking board and thus requires more voltage to meet the needs of the clock speed.
There's always a trade-off - But, for now I'm happy. But hey, you should try bumping your chip up-to 4.7-4.8Ghz, feels good man! lol
Also, are you on water or still using the D-14?