Q9450 OC / Temps / Settings

[mach82]

Intel themselves said so to Anandtech... And there are indications all over the place. If vCore doesn't do it, then VTT has gotta be it. Remember, default VTT on these chips is very low. 1.10v (apply to all chips). You pump in 1.3v VTT, and it's already as good as running the chip at 1.4-1.5v of vCore. Hence why up to 1.5v of vCore, it's fine, but excessive VTT might not be fine. Anandtech was running at 1.45v, a whooping .35v increase from 1.1v. Assuming the chip's default VID to be at 1.2v (you know this is not true, it's usually 1.25v - 1.30v), then it's as good as running at 1.55v vCore (assuming they have a good chip). Now tell me how that is not lethal.

Did you expect Intel say to anandtech, that exceeding nominal values (OC) is safe? That would simply encourage more people to OC and hence would also mean less money for Intel as people would OC instead of buying new CPUs. Intel and anandtech can just assume what was the cause of death of the CPU and Intel took their chance to clearly state that OC is bad and if you do it you may just kill your CPU. Truehighroller had his chip fry with a very low vcore of 1.26V. Does it meant that 1.26V can kill a 45nm chip? Or perhaps voltage regulators just can't work correctly when CPUs are heavily OCed. Some mobos are just not ready to work with quads at 4 GHz, which leads to mobos' failures and consequently dead chips.

You can also compare this situation to RAM makers. The standard voltage for DDR2 800 is 1.8V, yet some manufacturers would rate their sticks for max 2.4V, which is 33% higher than the standard value. Some of the sticks have been running such for 2 years and are still fine. On the other hand some sticks would die with 2V. Does it mean that 2V can kill DDR2? There's much more behind the phenomenon than just stating that such voltage is safe and such is not. If a given mobo has poor voltage regulators, then even safe voltage may cause a chip/stick to die. I've had my 45nm quad run a few times with VTT of 1.5V (overall about 30h) and it's still fine. I've also had my D9GMH stick killed while running with an EVGA 680 @2V within 24 hours, though it had run fine with my Asus P5Be @ 2.2V for a year. One incident can't be an oracle for all cases. I bet there are a number of people whose 45nm chips have been working with VTT>=1.45 and the CPUs are still fine.

Now look at the above settings of truehighroller - can you see any voltage that could lead to his chip being killed? I see none. If we were working for anandtech, we could state, that 1.26V can kill a 45nm chip and everyone would be afraid of setting more than 1.25V