I apologize in advance for the crappy video and audio quality, but I was wondering about this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbYu6rADEr4&feature=feedu

If you listen closely, you can hear an odd scratching or clicking noise...

Where did you get your case fans? A hairdryer? :mellow:

Anyways can't hear well enough in the vid, but usually the culprit of clicking in a PC is the hard drive or the fans. Those are really the only moving parts in the whole thing. It could mean your HDD and/or fans are wearing out, or it could just be harmless pulsing.

LOL, yeah it's noisy, I know ._.

But I just barely got it, so I doubt that they're already wearing out. I certainly hope not, anyway.

I couldn't hear anything in the video, but I'm not blessed with good hearing right now.

clicking sounds COULD be the HDD, which means head crash in which case your hard drive is on the last leg and you need to get all your data off of it NOW

It could also be something ele, like a cold capacitor discharging.

Open up the case and try and pinpoint the sound. If it sounds like it is coming from the HDDS -- BACK UP NOW!

Well, as I said in my previous comment, I just got it, so I kind of doubt that the hard drive is already wearing out.

If it's a pre-built there's no guarantee that the hardware inside isn't old. Infact if it was cheap than chances are very high that it IS old hardware.

Edit: Or as DEFRON said, sometimes these things just fail.

There are two types of hard drives: those that have failed and those that are about to fail.

A new hard drive can quite easily fail. Any hard drive less than 2 months old hasn't made it out of the "defective" period IMO.

I hear what you're talking about. It's clearer in the second half of the video. I'm not familiar with the sound of a dying hard drive though. It sounds like a half-second long scratch sound, like the sound of finger nails on plastic, every second, if I'm hearing the right thing.

There are some HDDs that make clicking noises even when fine, I find Samsung are the noisiest; they're worse than floppy drives.

Also, I forgot to mention that it only does this when it really starts speeding up (the fan). People who complain about the 'click of death' say that it does it all the time, but when my PCs on idle it's just fine.

backup all important files, now. That scratching could be your HD or CD-ROM drive. Doesn't sound good imo.

I can barely hear the clicking even with headphones on...did you check to see if any of the wires are kind of in the way of the fan blades somewhere? That happened to me once.

It doesn't sound like the click of death, IMO, and it doesn't even do it when my PC is on idle. But I guess it's always safe to check. Luckily, I don't really have any important files...

Judging by how horribly loud your fans are it could very well be them. The bearings/sleeves could be worn, or it could even be the case itself rattling from vibrations. I had a case that would do that from time to time when all the fans got to going fast, and I had to put my hand on it to stop the noise. When it makes the noise try applying (light) pressure to the sides, top, or front of the case and see if that stops it.

Ever thought about buying some cheap aftermarket fans from Newegg and swapping them out? It's not a terribly difficult process to do, and I guarantee they're better than the ones that come with the case.

Yeah, I'm thinking about getting new fans for Christmas that are quiet on idle and when gaming (it's only this loud when gaming, fortunately). Any recommendations?

Depends on the size of the fans your case supports. Usually 120mm, but some of them have weird configurations that take 80mm or 92mm fans. Also note that the loudest fans in your case will always be the CPU fan and the GPU fan, and sometimes the PSU fan as well if it's a piece of crap PSU (and none of those are really as easy to "swap out" as the case fans are). I don't know how tech savvy you feel when it comes to the hardware aspect, but getting a cheap aftermarket CPU cooler is one of the easiest ways to reduce the noise inside your case, though it's otherwise not needed for temperature reasons unless you overclock.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103052

The best of the best for silence seems to be http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608004, but they come at an obvious premium.

As for CPU coolers I wouldn't recommend putting one on if you don't know what you're doing, so that's just a "be that as it may" idea. Still, you can't really go wrong with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065, provided you watch plenty of guides on removing the old one, cleaning the old thermal compound, and applying new thermal compound.

As for the GPU fan there's nothing you can do about that besides getting a newer, better GPU. Same with the PSU fan.

Do you think it could also be the PSU fan? Because I'm also thinking about getting a higher watt power supply.

Do you know what your current PSU is? Also for that matter what your current CPU and GPU are?

AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.20 GHz
Nvidia Geforce GTX 550 ti (I heard this card was kind of bad after I bought it. I may upgrade to 560)
My PSU is 500 Watts, I don't know the type or brand though.

I guess you could stand to upgrade for more wattage. Don't go and get some 1000W PSU though, that's overkill. 750W maximum, 650W would be more reasonable. The big factor is making sure whatever PSU you get will be at LEAST 80+ Certified. Personally, because I'm biased, I wouldn't touch anything less than 80+ Gold or Platinum Certified, but that's just me. Normal 80+ or 80+ Bronze will do you very good. That efficiency rating will go a long way to making sure it doesn't have huge heat losses, which in turn makes it run its fan on high all the time to cool off.

Those Platinum PSU's are amazing, so much so that they idle with the fan straight up OFF without a problem. They're also expensive.

I did as you suggested and put pressure on the side of my case when the clicking started. Hasn't clicked since

Well there ya go. It was just the case rattling and vibrating.

Sometimes you just have to give her a hug, pat her on the head, and tell her everything is gonna be alright.