Obysk

Not the first solution that would have come to mind, but it worked. Just finished 3 full rounds with zero issues.

Thank you for your detailed message, first thing is crossing my mind is to do a fresh Windows installation using ASUS and NVIDIA drivers and give it a try again.

@kirashi
 
Got home, removed all RAM, unplugged literally everything from the motherboard except for 24-pin and CPU power, front panel LED/switch/reset, and CPU fan.
 
PSU unplugged and switched off, pressed the power button several times to remove any residual power.
 
Bridged the CLR-CMOS pins for a few seconds, plugged the PSU in, turned the PSU switch on, pressed the power button...nothing, bridged the power switch motherboard pins...nothing.
 
At this point is it safe to assume I have either a bad PSU or motherboard? I'm going to do a quick search for a cheap power supply tester, in the mean time, is there anything else I could try?

My 2 cents, your temps are fine, idle and load.

The CX PSUs are a great choice for basic PC use and/or anybody on a budget that still wants a relaible PSU from a great company. I have zero issue with CX series PSUs.

Oh man, I just recently purchased the original EVGA SLI bridge, and this new version looks like it would match my ACX 2.0 980's better. This always happens...It reminds me of when I ordered my Corsair H100i and literally 5 days later the H100i GTX was released...

WAIT HOLD UP. WE DONT WANT LINUS'S PERSONAL PC. The case has a lot of meaning to him guys. It was a gift from his wife. I believe it was the first gift from her too.
EDIT: Thanks for all the likes guys! Hopefully Linus or someone from LMG will read this and this will make Linus keep his build. Even if the goal of 100k is made we should convince Linus to do another build maybe, with signatures from the whole LMG family and maybe even his wife. This would let Linus keep the build he has with the special case his wife gave him. Besides, his personal PC would be more special to him than us.

Just received my new EVGA Pro SLI Bridge (2-Way), it is a single space bridge, part # 100-2W-0021-LR
 
Posting here in the event anybody is wondering what it looks like installed.
 
http://imgur.com/a/Y9lRB
 

My personal top 10 in no particular order:
 
Alien Isolation
Dead Space series (more the first and second game, 3rd game was OK)
Bioshock series
Deus Ex Human Revoultion
Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age Inquisition (not DA2)
Skyrim
Fallout 3 and New Vegas
Battlefield 4 (multiplayer)
Mass Effect series
Dishonored
 
Honerable mention - Dirt 3

Still it's an amazing game and should be played. 

My personal top 10 in no particular order:
 
Alien Isolation
Dead Space series (more the first and second game, 3rd game was OK)
Bioshock series
Deus Ex Human Revoultion
Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age Inquisition (not DA2)
Skyrim
Fallout 3 and New Vegas
Battlefield 4 (multiplayer)
Mass Effect series
Dishonored
 
Honerable mention - Dirt 3

Thank you! I may just keep the settings as is for right now and run with a 4.5GHz OC. I'm not looking to fully, 100%, get every last inch of OCability out of this CPU, just a nice stable, every day usage OC.
 
 
This is very good advice, thank you. I will try some more "true to life" benchmarking this evening.
 
 
This is good to know, I was actually wondering this myself.
 
 
I have no idea what this means? Sorry, like I stated, I'm very new to this. As mentioned above, I'm more looking for a stable, every day use type OC. Are the RAM timings for more advanced/max to the limit type OCing?