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water cooler (?) makes steady clicking noise when idling and under moderate load

Tags:
  • Cooling
  • Water Cooling
  • Build
  • Components
  • h100i
Last response: in Components
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March 8, 2014 9:45:17 PM

I'm an amateur in water cooling and building in general, and this is my first build. Likely not a wise place to start, but I bought a 4670k a while ago with the upgrade of my case (I don't make a whole lot of money, so this pc is an eternal work in progress) and I guess I got unlucky with the stock fan, as it overheated three times the first week I had it in despite the fact that it was only used at the time for web browsing(because I'm not that big of an idiot and I was only waiting for more money to get the cooler). By the second time, the heat sensor had stopped working. That is my point in this. The heat sensor is broken. The CPU cannot be 128 c and also keep a core average of 15 c. I cannot tell whether the cooler is the problem based on that.

I haven't overclocked before, but I cannot say I'm opposed to the idea. I assume once the 4770k I ordered gets a little old for me I'll clock it up a bit. That, and the quality of the stock fans on these things, drove me to get a h100i water cooler. Not something I should grow out of anytime soon, I suppose.

The point is, a week after I bought it the h100i started making this clicking noise.

Here is what it sounds like. Sorry for shitty Android tablet quality. Clicking sound is very faint here, it's actually a lot louder.
youtube link

It was very faint at first, but has gotten louder over time. Honestly, it could not even be the h100i, I've got some fairly old fans in there, but it certainly sounds like the cooler, after all the occasions of opening up the case from various angles. It is in a rhythm of fours, and is not always heard. it usually comes up after idling for a while or during moderate activity (given the state of the CPU that preforms like my old laptop CPU now that it's damaged and deteriorating) such as scrolling through a webpage that isn't short. I tapped on the tubes a bit after researching what the sound might be, and it definitely isn't my hard drive, but tapping was useless. It halted the rhythm momentarily, giving me further reason to believe that this sound comes from the cooler, but the noise eventually started up again. It's possible there's some air in it, but with the possibility of something more serious given that this was not present until a week after I installed it I think I have reason to ask here.

Thank you.

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March 8, 2014 10:39:02 PM

I'm going to suggest the paper towel roll trick here to isolate the source of the noise. If you listen to the system through a paper towel roll, you should be able to tell exactly where the noise is originating. It sorta sounds to me like a bearing clicking but that brings it down to a pump or fan (you've already gotten that far)
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