Lower vcore is a good thing. What MHz are you testing at?

Post a piece of the i7 Turbo log file if there are any multiplier drop outs observed.

Post a screen shot of i7 Turbo V8 at idle. With EIST turned off in the bios and no way to adjust the Minimum processor state, I'm not sure what this is actually set to by default. It might be different from one board to the next. Some boards need EIST enabled for turbo mode to work correctly. Now that your combo is running more stable you might be able to enable EIST in the bios so that you can have some control over your Minimum processor state.