Completely drained, no idea where to go and what to try...

I think I may need to PayPal some funds to some of you.

Rolling with the CPU core voltage offset suggestion:

+0.005v resulted in CPU Stress Test locking up the PC completely (power off to reboot).
+0.010v resulted in CPU Stress Test locking up the PC completely (power off to reboot).

+0.015v resulted in CPU Stress Test completing a 5 minute run with no issues, Max CPU temperature recorded was 62C (fluctuations from 58-62C after first 60 seconds or so).

+0.015v resulted in Memory Stress Test completing a 5 minute run with no issues, Max CPU temperature recorded was 61C (fluctuations from 56-61C after first 60 seconds or so).

Bear in mind that in over 35 hours of tests now with a moderately accurate guesstimate of ETU stress tests totalling somewhere in the region of 70 this is the first time I have ever been able to get either CPU or Memory Stress Tests to complete.

Guys/Gals I think you bloody did it!

Shall I leave that offset as it is and do you think there is any reason for me to up it anymore?

Is this indicative of a busted CPU or Mobo perhaps? Or is this simply something that can happen with a BIOS having default core voltage settings that are just a little out of whack for a given PSU/rig set up?

Mind blowing number of questions here....and now that period of uneasy panic as I hesitantly wait for the dreaded blue screen again - lets hope not!

Thank you all for such informative, and prompt suggestions folks! Amazing forum.
 
It might still need to go up higher as different usage stresses the cpu in different ways, you might find some things it's still not stable running.

The fault is very likely with the CPU. Usually Intel set the voltages at the factory and if they've set it slightly lower than the CPU can actually do you get instability. CPUs do degrade ever so slightly over the years but usually the standard voltage has enough leway that it never causes any instability.

Is your CPU an Intel Retail Boxed CPU? If so you can most likely get it replaced for a new processor. You can check here: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/warranty to see if it's covered.

Or you could just keep using it as it is with a higher voltage. There aren't really any negative effects though it does mean you won't easily be able to sell it in the future as technically it is faulty.
 
Thanks again.

Out of interest if I continue to get freezes - complete lock ups of the system during stress heavy runs (video editing, streaming etc.) and decide to whack that core voltage offset up....at what point am I risking doing something bad.

For example is a 0.030v offset considered a 'big one'?

The actual UEFI list has a huge range of options but I don't want to start just whacking it up if that is going to lead to more issues.
 
So long as your total core voltage (base + offset) doesn't exceed around 1.3v or so you won't cause any damage to the chip, but a 3570k that needs 1.3v to be stable at stock speeds is very much a lemon or could have something else wrong with it.

Use something like OpenHardwareMonitor to check your CPU voltage in Windows (should be around 0.9xx when idle), then run Prime or something and see what the voltage jumps up to. It's better to check this way because you can see what's happening after vdroop is taken in to account.
 
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Cheers chaps.

At idle CPU-Z records core voltage as 0.856v - 0.864v.

Just done another run with Intel Extreme Tuning Utility:

Max core voltage recorded by CPU-Z was 1.088v
Max temperature was 60C
Max core speed was 3599.16MHz

This was a 0.030v core offset.

I'm assuming I therefore have quite a bit of manoeuvrability if I need to up that offset to remain stable?

How uncommon is this out of interest though? I mean obviously I have to assume something is wrong, although perhaps degradation of the chip over the years may explain the issue?
 
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It may not be the cpu, it could be the stability of the supply to it from the mobo.
1.088v is quite low, some motherboards default to 1.150v.
I don't think you have anything to worry about yet.
 
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