9450 OC - Am I lucky or am I doing something very wrong

[Protochicken]

I recently built my first system, and after spending a month doing my due diligence reading the guides and posts here and at a few other forums I felt like I had learned enough to enter the world of overclocking safely.

Things went much smoother than I ever imagined they would have which leads me to my question. I am currently overclocking my 9450 at 3.40 on a Gigabyte X48t-DQ6 with my CPU voltage at only 1.1875. I haven't touched the Northbridge voltage, which Gigabytes BIOS refers to as GMCH, and defaults to 1.40 volts, or the VTT which they call FSB OverVoltage, and defaults to 1.10 volts. I'm stable on all three Prime95 tests at 18 - 20 hours each. I'm cooling by air with a good case and a Zalman 9700. My load temps don't get higher than 63 Celsius, which I think is good since my ambient temps are about 82 degrees Fahrenheit (I think that's around 27-28 Celsius). The CPU's VID is 1.1625.

This voltage seems very low compared to what others have to set their voltages at to reach 3.40 volts, which makes me think I'm missing something here given that I'm am completely new and inexperienced at overclocking. I keep telling myself I'm misleading myself and have done something wrong but I can't figure out what that might be. Should I just consider myself lucky at this point and enjoy the computer or am I possibly doing something very wrong?

 

[lambofgode3x]

you're most likely fine...not all cpu's oc the same...some better, some not at all...for example, when athlon x2's were king, a friend of mine and i both got 4800+'s, both coming from the same batch (we compared). he got his to 3.1ghz on air using 1.48v. i got mine to 2.9 using water at 1.7 volts.

just count your blessings and go have some fun.

 

[level101]

You have a good chip with a low VID.
Mine runs @ 3.4GHz with 1.225v

 

[shadowthor]

you have a good chip

 

[SirCrono]

This voltage seems very low compared to what others have to set their voltages at to reach 3.40 volts

Well, everyone should set their voltages at 3.4v to attain 3.40 volts...

Sorry, couldn't resist it.

And yhea, you got a great chip, getting 3.4 at that voltage sure is sweet.

 

[Protochicken]

Thanks for the replies, it puts my mind at ease. One more question I forgot to ask. In my eagerness to start overclocking, I was obviously running Prime all day and night, and failed to remember to turn my computer off and on to let the Arctic Silver go through some thermal cycles. After being on for the majority of 5 days is it too late to start letting it go through those cycles to begin the curing process, or should it be fine if remember to shut it off and cool down to room temps from here? I really don't want to have to uninstall and reinstall that Zalman 9700 again, so I'm hoping I don't need to reapply the AC5.

 

[grieve]

Its fine.

 

[shadowthor]

don't worry about it, as long as temps are fine.

 

[fantom-feltpen]

i cnat even OC my 9850 that high!!!! jealous!!!!