SO I decided to post here about my recent bad/good news.
The bad news is that my Q9450 is dead, probably from trying to push over 4ghz with more than 1.5v. The good news is intel is great about replacing chips pretty much no questions asked, and I should be getting a brandspanking new one on wednesday.
So I would warn anyone, especially those with P45 boards, against pushing even to 4ghz, as it could kill your chip more easily than most. I only spent a handful of hours altogether making abuseful attempts on my chip before noticing that it would no longer post at stock. moving it to a new board confirmed, it's dead.