The vid of my E8400 is 1.225. On stock speed with C1E and IEST enabled it dips to 1.8 to 1.2 on zero loads. I've been tweaking the BIOS just now and lowered everything, HT, NB volatges and set the vcore to 1.31. I left C1E enabled but disabled EIST
After booting into Windows, CPU-Z reports my core voltage fluctuating between 1.264 and 1.280 while Core Speed stays locked at 3.6 Ghz. I also repaired XP. 30 min of Prime95 and no crashes where before crash, hard lock within 5 minutes.
This makes me think my chip is as good as new and the initial problem was too much voltage across the board. But to be sure, I'll let in run overnight on Prime95. Artic Cooling Pro, Rev 2 keepsone core max temp to 61 and the other to 56 @ fan speed near 1900 rpm. Thanks for the tips guys!