so heres where i am at now. i think its so close i can smell it...

Code:
******Gigabyte EP45 UD3P******

Q9650 489 X 9 4401MHz 

Robust Graphics Booster.........................[ Auto     ] 
CPU Clock Ratio.................................[ 9        ] 
Fine CPU Clock Ratio............................[ 0        ] 
CPU Frequency 4.35GHz...........................[ 489 x 9  ]

******Clock Chip Control******

CPU Host Clock Control..........................[ Enabled  ] 
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz)........................[ 489      ] 
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz).....................[ 100      ] 
C.I.A 2 [Disabled] 

******Advanced Clock Control******

CPU Clock Drive.................................[ 1000mv   ] 
PCI Express Clock Drive.........................[ 1000mv   ] 
CPU Clock Skew..................................[ 0ps      ] 
MCH Clock Skew..................................[ 50ps     ] 

******DRAM Performance Control******

Performance Enhance [Standard] 
Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)....................[ Disabled ] 
(G) MCH Frequency Latch.........................[ 333MHz ] 
System Memory Multipler.........................[ 2.00  ] 
Memory Frequency 1066...........................[ 978  ] 
DRAM Timing Selectable..........................[ Manual ] 

CAS Latency Time................................[ 5        ] 
tRCD............................................[ 5        ] 
tRP.............................................[ 5        ] 
tRAS............................................[ 15       ] 



******Motherboard Voltage Control******

Load-Line Calibration [Enabled] 
CPU Vcore         [ 1.200   ]...................[ 1.40625 ] 
CPU Termination   [ 1.20    ]...................[ 1.34   ]
CPU PLL           [ 1.50    ]...................[ 1.570  ]
CPU Reference     [ 0.766   ]...................[ 0.888   ] 

MCH Core          [1.1      ]...................[ 1.400  ]  
MCH Reference     [0.760    ]...................[ 0.928   ] 
MCH/DRAM Refernce [0.900    ]...................[ Auto ] 
ICH I/O           [1.500    ]...................[ Auto] 
ICH Core          [1.100    ]...................[ Auto] 

DRAM Voltage      [1.800    ]...................[ 2.10  ] 
DRAM Termination  [0.900    ]...................[ Auto] 
Channel A Ref     [0.900    ]...................[ Auto] 
Channel B Ref     [0.900    ]...................[ Auto]  

******Advanced BIOS Features******

CPU Multithreading..............................[ Disabled ] 
Limit CPUID Max to 3............................[ Disabled ] 
No-Execute memory Protect.......................[ Disabled ]  
CPU Enhance Halt (CIE)..........................[ Disabled ]  
C2/C2E State Support............................[ Disabled ]  
C4/C4E State Support............................[ Disabled ] 
CPU Thermal Monitor.............................[ Disabled ] 
CPU EIST Function...............................[ Disabled ] 
Virtualization Technology.......................[ Disabled ]
i've ran memtest overnight with these settings (471% complete or something) without errors, but im running into problems with prime small fft's. is it safe to assume that not having enough vcore would cause it to crash fairly quickly? because i started with 1.3875, ran prime small fft for two hours before a crash. bumped up to 1.4, ran again but crashed at the same spot @ two hours. bumped one more notch to 1.40625, and again, crash at two hours. since i was running small fft's it cant be the mch/ram thats failing, correct? i mean, it passed memtest overnight.

what do you think? im going to bump the Vtt and cpu ref each one notch and test again.

previously, i was 10 hours prime blend stable with 480*9 w/ 1.3875vcore bios @ those same settings.