freestylingford
I just dont see how its possible for just a couple of pins to bend and not alot of the others around unless there was a foreign object in that exact spot or the pins were just a bit longer than all of the other ones.
 
The pins that are bent now being longer would also make sense to me due to the fact the CPU has an indention / blemish in that spot

Definitely did not drop anything into the socket and I was pretty careful about seating the CPU.  But like I said, I didn't examine the socket too closely before I seated the CPU.
 
Don't really see any blemishes on the CPU (That earlier pic I posted was just a fleck of white'ish dust as it just blew off easily enough) -
 

 
 

 

gutcheck
Go for it...  (do it).
 
 
 
 
 
Get it.

heh
 
Yeah! Ok, maybe.  Pretty sure the H110 will fit in the R4 case.  But still have to see what's left in the budget after I find out how much EVGA is gonna charge me for the board repair.  And when I get the board back let me make sure I didn't fry the CPU.  

ganzosrevenge
The classy will do very nicely in your rig. :D

Well, with the release of the GTX 980/970's I got it in my mind tonight to send my Corsair PSU and 780ti back to newegg, then purchase the EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 PSU and 2 EVGA 970's for SLI.
 
Then I was hit with the fact that newegg doesn't refund video cards at all.  Ouch.  Never had to return one, so I didn't realize.
 
EVGA, can you pull some strings with newegg and get me a refund on the 780ti!?!  It's been a mere 21 days after I purchase your *flagship card!
 
Also, somewhat more importantly, EVGA is shipping another x99 FTW back to me.  70$.  Can't complain, really.  Sucks though that between the repair cost for the bent sockets and the shipping, I could've bought the x99 Classified.
 
Oh, well.  Live and learn...or not.
 
*ok, flagship is a tad harsh. But, still.

Well, she's the most beautiful I've built, no question...if not the most colorful (really enjoy the bevel on the acrylic window on the Fractal Design R4 and how it refracts the light).  Anfd against popular opinion, I've always been a fan of Creative's products since the Sound Blaster AWE64 days.  So as a bonus, I'm really digging it's red ambient light.  Nice going Creative.  More importantly, the card sounds fantastic.
 

 

 

 
Yessir, that's WatchDogs.  Really?  What else would it be?  I live in Chicago.
 
Have to say, though, I've been working on-site these past few days -- on a Mac, no less, very well equipped, but still -- so, I haven't had a chance to do any 3ds Max/AE/PS/IL work on this new beast to put it through it's paces.
 
But, I did find an hour to install Watchdogs and fire that up.  Everything cranked to Ultra, except the AA, I kept fiddling with that.  As usual, everything but "Off", just kinda made me feel like everything was too blurry.
 
No disappointments there, though.  Bear with me since ATM I have no frames/sec data, but it was as damn smooth as I could have ever hoped, especially after reading many complaints at UBI about how ****ty the PC port was.
 
That's the good.  Really good, actually.
 
The bad is that I cannot get the XMP profiles to work for my G.Skill RAM.  "Auto" seems to work just fine, though. 
 
However, I did switch to "Manual" and inputted the timings myself, just in case.
 
So far, I couldn't be more pleased with this build.
 

 

Ran several benchmarks this afternoon with a simple overclock, multiplier increased to 40 and voltages left to auto.  RAM not touched since just a CPU multiplier increase.  780ti at stock with Nvidia 344.11 driver:
 

 
Here are some results:
 
Specwpc:
 

 
Cinebench:
 

 
Heaven Benchmark:
 

 
3DMARK11:
 

 
3DMARK (this one also shows and earlier result at stock CPU speed):
 

 
After Effects CUDA Raytracing benchmark from http://www.teddygage.com (details here: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/1019120 and http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1587574 ):
 

 
Very old 3ds Max, yet still relevant, MentalRay benchmark @ 32 bucket size: (details here: http://www.evermotion.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?46777-3dsmax-rendering-benchmark):
 

 
3ds Max Viewport GPU benchmark (details here: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/installation-hardware-os/graphics-card-benchmark/td-p/4293383 and http://forums.cgarchitect.com/73746-graphics-card-benchmark.html): 
 

 
Photoshop speed test (no built in timer, so must use a stopwatch) from http://clubofone.com/speedtest/ (details here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=200558) 7.36 seconds:
 
 

 
I didn't record or log any CPU/GPU temps during any of the benchmarks, but I did occasionally/randomly check and CPU never got much past 72c or so and the GPU with and aggressive fan profile never left the mid-70's.
 
And finally a SS of various system monitors at idle, but having been benched a for a good part of the day at a room temp of about 22c:
 

*edit to add Max Viewport test

 

Been there before with the LGA 2011 socket. They do bend easily. Anyway would love to ask why the zalman for cooling ?

manojks
Been there before with the LGA 2011 socket. They do bend easily. Anyway would love to ask why the zalman for cooling ?

Ugh, LGA...is not my favorite.
 
Why Zalman?  I tend to be a loyal consumer.  The photos I've posted earlier?  That green glow on the other machine in the background is a Zalman CNPS 9700 NT and it has been running like a champ 24/7 on an EVGA 680i/Q6600 for over 6 years.
 
Interesting you ask, though.  I just noticed this evening, while snapping that last photo, that the Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B seems to be spitting lubricant onto the case window.  Not too cool, Zalman.

@spf33 Welcome back! Like you, I've been out in the tech wilderness, for a few!
There's something about "the build" that is immensely satisfying. My challenge is getting a tidy interior, with a case, though expensive, and state-of-the-art, in it's day (Interesting that Silverstone, has stopped producing "enthusiast towers"), does not lend itself to neat cabling.
Good job with, an attractive build. It's not just how it performs, it's got to look good too; then you can stand back, and admire your work of art

sputnik7913
Same here, it doesn't make sense!

Well, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, I did tighten down the Zalman cooler screws pretty hard and probably should've known better.   LGA sockets are more prone to damage from this sort of thing than PGA sockets.
 
And in my haste to get the machine built and running I didn't really examine or photograph the socket when I first unpacked it, so who knows truly what condition it was in.
 
All I do know is that the replacement x99 FTW board is running excellent with the same Zalman cooler and a 5930k.  The 5960x I sold to a friend, the one that was in the socket when I over tightened the Zalman, is running great.
 
Here are a couple of much clearer photos that EVGA took when the received my RMA'ed board.
 
You can see in this one even after blowing with compressed air and a cross county trip the dog hair made it all the to Cali from Chi;