Noise from the clock ticking near the CPU area
Noise from the clock ticking near the CPU area
Hello, I've been using this gaming setup for a while now, and this problem has never occurred before. Recently, I noticed a subtle 'ticking' noise near my CPU area. I describe it simply as a faint ticking, not like clicking, buzzing, or any other sound. I’m certain it’s not coming from the hard drive. It isn’t originating from the GPU either—I even replaced it thinking it was the GPU, but it wasn’t. At first, I suspected the GPU because the sound is close to where the CPU and GPU are located. I also question if my PSU is the culprit; I’ve placed my head directly against it and didn’t hear the noise coming from that spot.
I’ve tested each fan individually, and the ticking persists even when they’re off. I removed the glass panels on my case and placed my ear near the motherboard. That helped confirm the source is the CPU area. The ticking gets louder under load. It disappears when I first power on the PC, but starts up during activities like playing YouTube or browsing. The volume changes, sometimes it’s barely audible unless I’m very close to my case.
Temperature readings from HWMonitor and Msi Afterburner show everything is normal for their components. I captured the sound on video. I know coil whine exists, but it doesn’t match this pattern. Also, when I crank up my speakers, the ticking comes through as well. My guess is the noise is bouncing off the motherboard and getting picked up by its audio circuitry.
Any suggestions on what this might be or how to resolve it would be greatly appreciated. If you need more details, feel free to share.
I'm not sure about the ticking noise. With these headphones and being away from home, I can't really pick up any sound clearly. If it were steady, it might be something like a pump or fan—maybe even mechanical storage or GPU cooling. But hearing it through speakers is odd. It could mean a brake-like effect on a pump, losing power to the ground and feeding it into audio. This is just my guess, since I didn’t hear it on my poor Bluetooth setup.
Thanks for your reply. I recorded it on my phone and I just reviewed the video again—it's there. It seems you might just need to crank up the volume completely (if you've already done that, then probably the headphones are the issue). The speaker section isn't too bothersome because I have to turn the knob all the way up to hear static so I can catch the ticking sound. Usually I keep the physical speakers at a lower setting and it works fine for me.
Might be coil whine present. Launching any game can trigger the noise, and its volume often drops when the game hits FPS limits or sync settings are adjusted.
It seems the pump on the aio is making noise. Have you experimented with adjusting its speed manually to check if it changes the sound?
I was on my mobile device before and restarted my computer. After booting up, the noise didn't appear. When I opened my Icue software to change the pump speed from quiet to balanced, a ticking sound began. Even after returning to quiet mode, the ticking remains faint—hard to hear unless you're near the case.
I also considered it, but my doubt comes mainly from the pump speed adjustment—there’s no noticeable impact on the sound. I can’t set it to zero RPM, yet it remains inactive. The noise samples for my exact model all sound like a clicking or grinding, not the steady ticking I expect. Plus, my CPU temperature has been around 35–50°C.