PC producing weird "clicking" sound

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Itachi_1

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Dec 4, 2015
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I built this PC and after a few days, I started to hear this weird sound. It's not always there, it seems to start and cease randomly. It sounds clicky, as if a fan or a gear wheel was hitting something. I post a link for what I was able to record below.
All parts except for hard drives are completely new.

https://vocaroo.com/i/s1wUEqbO301g

Is there anything I can do? I checked the pc many times and no component is loose, no cables are in way of anything.
 
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Itachi_1

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The case's fan is not plugged in, so it stays still. Don't need it as the temperatures are good enough without it.
 
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voxic

voxic

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Maybe it's the GPU fans?
 
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Itachi_1

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Nothing is anywhere near any fans. Also, i find it weird that it only occurs sometimes - if it was e.g. a cable hanging into a spinning fan, it would be happening all the time... but what can it be since it's like this?
 
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Itachi_1

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Yes, I've read something about that - that it sometimes signs the upcoming death of the hard drive. I am far from being 100% sure, but i don't think that it made the sound back in the old build.
 
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SchizTech

SchizTech

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Jan 16, 2011
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The most logical causes of a clicking kind of noise from a PC are the fans or HDD. If it's not the HDD it's possible the fan in the PSU is doing it (that's another fan present in any PC not accounted for earlier in the thread). There is such a thing as the "click of death" but the sound I heard from the recording didn't really resemble that; the click of death tends to feature more distinct and louder single clicks but not as many in the same time.

Some drives go on for years like that, and are just a bit noisy. A good isolating case can reduce the noise a fair bit. Is the new build in a new case also?
 
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Itachi_1

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No other fans present.
No, the case also stayed from the old pc. I'm a bit afraid to just isolate the sound, as it potentially can point me towards a problem i would then let go unnoticed...
 
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SchizTech

SchizTech

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Aside from the CPU/GPU heatsink fans and any case fans (which you stated are disconnected) there is another fan few people think about, which is built into the power supply unit. Sometimes a PSU fan can vibrate (though the sound tends to be closer to a buzzing then the clicky noise here)
 
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SchizTech

SchizTech

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Well, if you care to spend a bit of time to isolate any other oddball issue which could be behind the noise, run the PC for a bit with the HDD disconnected for long enough that you'd have expected to have come across the noise. Also, if it is a HDD noise it will correlate with periods of HDD use which is usually shown by an indicator light on most cases. If you notice the clicky noises and indicator light flashes occur at about the same times, that will point to a HDD as the source.

It's not necessarily bad for the drive, though you can run a free diagnostic like Segate SeaTools to be safe (that runs on all makes, not only Seagate's own brands)
 
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Itachi_1

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Tried the program. Did the tests. Up until the 2nd round of the test (a small bar filled green as the testing advanced, about four times in a row), all was silent, but then the sound came as loud and intense as never before. All was finished and the program says all is fine, but because of the sound, now i at least know which one of the hardrives it is (ironically enough, it was the Seagate one). I suppose that there's nothing I can do from now on except for making back ups often and waiting until it dies on its own, sooner or later.
 
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