CWSfan16

Apparently, it was just me being an idiot...

Thanks for the hand on experience... Also, that is an awesome resource for the motherboards, thanks again

You probably have a bad hdd. Do a smart test with crystal disk info or a full disk scan with badblocks or hdtume.

awesome, thanks... I remember having to do that the first time around

That should work, but also verify slot positioning.  You want that Primary OS to be in the first slot or it might connect to the other drive instead.  Otherwise, you'll have to set order in BIOS/UEFI

thanks for easing my mind 

Yes

Have that exact same CPU and cooler, and yes, maximum temps I got using prime was 72º. Ambient being 23º.
So... Yes, you're pretty much fine.

It may work, but it's not guaranteed.  Asus recommends against even using 2 identical kits (to double your capacity) because of the claim that many sub-timings may be different.

I should be fine. If not, just pop it out again. No harm done

I believe they will just run at the lowest clock speed? Don't quote me on that though. Probably best to just run back to Microcenter.

What ram is it? They should just run together at the lowest of the two speeds just fine. That being said, it isn't guaranteed by the manufacturer when you use ram in different configurations.

CX 430/600/600(M) are all green labels and are average
CX 400 are a special snow flake and has a black label and are good.
CX 450/550/650M have a gray/grey label and are very good.
CX 750/850(M) have either a green or gray/grey label, gray/grey is better but either are good
 
Yep, worth the upgrade, but 750W is really overkill for a single GTX 1070, I would just get a Corsair CX 450M if you are not going to SLI, but an EVGA GQ 750W is a great choice if you are going to SLI in the future.

2k = 1080p
1440p ≈ 2.5k

The Xeon E3 1231 V3 is basically an i7 as in its a quad core with 4 threads which is what you want for rendering the only reason its cheaper than an i7 is because it doesn't have an iGPU and you can't overclock it which could turn out to be an advantage since H97 motherboards tend to be cheaper than Z97.