Great point, man. I'm right there with you. I understand the multiplier, I understand the core voltage, I understand the DRAM voltage and those are the only things I touch. Sure, I can
find the definitions of other stuff:
Load-Line Calibration: As the CPU accepts more work, its power draw increases. This in turn causes a voltage drop (vdrop), which is automatically compensated by the motherboard by increasing the applied voltage slightly. Some motherboards might therefore call this option Vdrop, or even more inaccurately, vdroop. Normally Load-Line Calibration is an enable or disable setting. When overclocking, you always want to enable Load-Line Calibration. Some motherboards provide more advanced options, which we'll detail in turn.
CPU PLL Voltage: Generally this doesn't need changing at all, although if increasing the CPU Voltage or the two Vcc options doesn't work, it's worth a try. Using anything over 2V isn't recommended, but 1.9V can help to stabilise an overclock.
PCH Voltage: Translated, this means the chipset, as PCH standd for Platform Control Hub. Again, this shouldn't need a voltage change, but if all else fails on the other settings above try increasing it just a touch. Don't go crazy though, as most P67 chipset heatsinks are largely for show because the chip doesn't need much cooling at default speeds and voltages.
Spread Spectrum : Spread Spectrum is useful in offices full of PCs, as it fluctuates the Base Clock frequency to prevent the PCs producing a sympathetic EMI field that might interfere with other devices. As such. you should disable Spread Spectrum when overclocking.
The advice of this bit-tech overclocking guide quoted above and that of many of the folks here and on places like overclock.net is real "fuzzy." As in, "Well, why don't you bump up the PCH by .1v?" or "Why don't you go ahead and set load-line calibration to "medium" and tell us what happens?"
I don't think there are many (any???) amateurs here or elsewhere that understand what we are actually doing to the reliability of the processor and chipset or whether bumping up those voltages have a reason to improve stability. After all, without specialized equipment, the only way to assess whether upping the PLL voltage or enabling internal PLL overvoltage or spread spectrum or whatever is to try it and watch the temperatures and see how long it lasts under prime95 -- but we never know whether we're degrading the processor...
I read a post from an enthusiast over at overclock.net that obviously has money to burn -- or a real love for the hobby -- that's buying a few 2600ks and was asking for the best way to degrade the 2600k. That kind of data collection is actually very helpful in helping us determine whether we should be messing with PLL voltage and the rest of these esoteric settings.
So my advice going forward would be to set the multiplier, leave core voltage on auto, and let the system boot and stress test it. If it works, knock down the voltage a little at a time and re-test. At some point you'll find the minimum core voltage needed for the speed you're looking for. That seems to be a better approach than messing around with 5 different variables, the consequences of which no one outside Taipei or Santa Clara knows...
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