Question Loud dripping sound - - - possibly from my PC ?

[greenlion]

Sorry if this is a weird question, but I'm trying to figure out if this actually  is a PC issue or something else.

Last Black Friday I bought my wife a prebuilt Cyberpower PC, so it's not even a year old and hasn't had any other problems so far. It has a Bitspower Infinity 360mm AIO, with the radiator mounted to the top of the case. Earlier tonight we both heard a LOUD dripping sound; our PCs are in the basement, and we heard it upstairs on the first floor. I initially worried it might have been our water heater, or a leaky pipe, but when I got downstairs it sounded like it was coming from around--or possibly inside--the PC. It stopped before we could determine the source, though, and we shined a light inside and didn't notice any liquid or residue on the GPU or elsewhere in the case where it might have dripped. The AIO cables seemed fine. The PSU has a shroud over it and I didn't notice anything pooled on top of that, either.

So basically I'm just trying to figure out if it even IS a PC issue. Could the AIO just be making sounds? Or, bigger worry (and I'm not tech savvy enough to know), could something from the PSU be leaking that might have made that sound? Nothing seemed to be coming out of the back and leaking onto the desk, but I admit I was wary of lifting the shroud up for fear of getting any kind of capacitor fluid or something on my hands. It's a Thermaltake Toughpower PF3 850w, so not a no-name brand.

Anyone have any experience with hearing a sound like this coming from their PC? And if so, what should I do about it?

Thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

To be blunt, the sound of a leak even if it were a massive one wouldn't be heard on the next floor above(if I've assumed your abode correctly). If you do want to rule out your PC as the source of the noise and your AIO being leaky, place paper towels inside the case, under your radiator. You should be able to catch the leak but as stated prior, you wouldn't be able to hear the leak from floors above.

Might've been another source in your abode or outside or your neighbors.

 

[greenlion]

Thanks for the welcome!

And yeah, the fact that we could hear it from the floor above made me question whether anything in the PC could have dripped that loud, but I honestly wasn't sure. Might have indeed been another source, but putting paper towels underneath the radiator just in case is a good suggestion! Thanks!

 

[ohio_buckeye]

One reason to go air cooling. I’ve seen a board fried due to a leaky aio.

 

[JayGau]

One reason to go air cooling. I’ve seen a board fried due to a leaky aio.

Seriously? You know there's no way a leaking AIO could make a sound that could be heard from another floor right?

And I prefer having to replace a fried motherboard because of an AIO failure than using those big, ugly and loud air coolers. But I had four AIOs in the last 8 years and never had a problem with any of them (beside some RGB issues). In fact, my very first one I bought in 2017 is still running great in my linux machine. And one of my colleagues installed twelve of them in his computational cluster 4 years ago and they have been running 24/7 for all those years without any issues.

Leaky AIOs are most often caused by user bad manipulations (bent or cruched pipes, cracked radiator because of overtighten screws, etc). Leaks from factory defects are extremely rare.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

In that case it was a prebuilt that I think was using a cheaper aio so I’ll give you that. Personally I don’t mind the tower air coolers.