First of the never use software to OC mantra is "old news". leftover from bygone days. Read the reviews and you will find that while manual OCing is the best way to get the highest ultimate OC, the software the comes with many boards these days does the job just fine. The Asus ROG Boards, WS boards for example accomplish this task very well.
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/asus_p8z77_ws/7.htm
Manually tweaking the board is the way to get the most your CPU has to offer but not the only game in town. Using the TurboV EVO tool in ASUS AI Suite II allows the user to basically push a button in the AI Suite II GUI and have the system manage the CPU overclock via the CPU level up function applying a series of tweaks including voltage and bclock tuning to deliver a stable overclock. In the past this tool has been on the conservative side when it came to overclocks but through the past few launches has gotten a bit more aggressive. For my limited chip ASUS tool was able to pull a fully respectable 4429MHz with nothing more than pushing the button on the screen. Again in the past this tool would deliver the overclock but prove not 100% stable at the overclock set by the tool. What a change a few generations makes as the 4.43GHz clock speed is fully stable at 1.26v.
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/asus_p8z77_ws/13.htm
That being said the ease with which you can improve the board's performance is as simple as point and click. Manually tuning or using ASUS TurboV Evo tool you can overclock on this board as easy as any in the ASUS P8Z77 arsenal. By using TurboV EVO in AI Suite II the board and software set up a perfectly stable 4.42GHz speed on my clock speed challenged Core i7 3770K. Manual tuning was a bit more rewarding as it usually is at 4.6GHz.
I usually use the Auto Tuning tool as a base point, save the settings in the Asus BIOS Tools section (can store 10 sets of restorable setting in 2 clicks) a.nd then see how much better I can do via manual tweaking. As the years have gone by, my improvements have gotten smaller and smaller. There's various youtube videos w/ JJ demonstrating this.
Of course, not all manufacturer's tools are created equal and it seems to me that there's a strong correlation between the price of the board and just how well these things do.
Getting back to temps..... you'll see that the newer 4xxxk and 3xxxk series Intel CPUs, run hotter than their predecessors. This is due to smaller dies as well as changes in the manufacturing process.
Here's the 1st day results on Son No. 3's 2600k w/ Thermalright Siver Arrow
Stock 51,53, 53, 51 (1.224) LLC = Auto
4.0 Ghz 52, 54, 55, 52 (1.016-1.024) LLC = Auto
4.2 GHz 54, 56, 57, 55 (1.256 - 1.264) LLC = Auto
4.4 Ghz 56, 60, 60, 67 (1.280 - 1.288) LLC = Auto
4.6 Ghz 62, 66, 68, 65 (1.360 - 1.368) LLC = High
4.8 Ghz 71, 77, 79, 72 (1.408 - 1.416) LLC =Ultra High*
After TIM cured and we tweaked a bit over the next few days, the highest temp at the 4.8 setting dropped to 75. Machine is set to default boot at the 4.6 profile for 24/7 use, but there's a 5.0 Extreme Gaming profile that we eventually developed w/ HT turned off. I don't think he uses it much as we tried it a lot w/ BF3 and there were no significant differences.
It will be a bit harder to hit those clocks on Ivy Bridge and Haswell but the thermal limits are comparable to what I'd use on these CPUs
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