Dobri

Hm, yeah, that's a good point. I guess I was mistaking processor use with the nature of the operations, I can see some prime95 cycles being more straneous on the CPU, even though the net "used cycles" does not change. That doesn't explain why I haven't seen it before but I'll just assume I didn't have a benchmark running long enough, considering I haven't tried OC the 6800 before.
 
That still leaves the open question - CPU was stable at stock clock for months. Why is it bringing it down to stock clock now makes the PC crash while gaming? And in general, what can I do to make the CPU stable, at any clock speed but preferrably ~4.1 which seems to peak in the high 80 during one of those spikes but runs at low 70 at full load otherwise? I know 100C is high but I don't think it's high enough to cause permanent damage to the CPU, especially for the 2 minutes it thermal throttled for and considering specs say 105 to be the T max, which is supposedly the maximum temperature before lifetime is significantly affected.
That's exactly what I did that I perceive caused all of this. Auto overclock bricked Windows (couldn't even boot safe mode or run any repairs, literally had to reinstall). I promised myself I would not use it again until everyone starts badgering me how much better it is or manual OC is turned down completely, whichever comes first.
 
And I meant I wasn't looking for the usual "You don't need two 1080s and you definitely don't need a 6800 for gaming" opinion some people have a hard time keeping to themselves. Compliments on its ballerness are completely welcome, I'd do full specs but you already know the good stuff. 

Except if you have good practices and split out your headers well so you can put all the usings you want in your cc because it will never get included anywhere.
 
To answer the original topic without starting a flame war, I have seldom seens newbies do well with C++/Java/C#/<insert favorite heavily OOP language here> as their first language. You can learn C but why. I did the mistake of trying to force C++ down beginner programmer's throats because "it's the way you gain deeper knowledge". It's also the way you get so overwhelmed by everything and give up. A good starting point is a scripting language. Since you already have Python knowledge, I'd stick with that and it's a pretty solid language. Another thing you can try is Go (to a point). It's kind of a nice middle ground between scripting and production coding. If you really hate yourself or are interested in web, you can also give Ruby or PHP a shot + JavaScript to either one. You'd be able to build pretty robust web solutions in only a few weeks of coding and you'd feel very empowered. You can even try Node.js so you can learn just one language - JavaScript - and do both server and client code.
 
Aaaand with all of the above said, just pick something you like and enjoy. If you're a Lisp person or a Haskell or even a Brainf* person, no one will judge you, it's really cool you want to get to coding. Aiming for something that will "look good on a resume" or "is the right way to do things" won't really get you anywhere. Specifically by the things you outlined, I'd recommend you get some PERL or Python and learn bash (not really a language but a useful skill nonetheless).