Update -

So since its been running fine now for over a day and a half with the three cards without the splitters, I thought I would try to narrow down what card/splitter is causing me the issue.  I plugged in a 4th card and fired it up and started mining.  While I was updating NiceHash I was looking at the two remaining splitters, I noticed one of them had one out of the eight pins only coming halfway up, probably not even making contact with the cable out of my PSU, effectively running on 7 pins...or 7.5 pins at best lol.  

That was probably my issue all along, I hope at least.  It's a cheap fix, and in the future I will more carefully examine each cable.  It was a little difficult to notice, in my defense.  

For now I am just still running the four cards to play it safe and ensure stability.  I did email the vendor to try and get a replacement though.  

Thanks everyone for tips and advice along the way, I greatly appreciate it.  I will continue to update this thread though in case anyone else out there runs into a similar issue