PC making a strange rattling sound, curious how serious it is.

[Galactic Druid]

I recently got a new PC. I know very little about hardware, so I got a prefab gaming PC. This is the exact model:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-7-3700x-16gb-geforce-rtx-2070-super-2tb-hdd-240gb-ssd-white/6362429.p?skuId=6362429

It's been great. It does everything I'd need it to, and then some. The only problem is today, it started making a rattling sound where before it was whisper quiet. The rattle to me sounded like a cable getting too close to the blades of a fan. I know just enough about hardware to know how to test that. None of the fans were the issue, but I did determine that the sound I believe is coming from where the CPU is housed. I'm wondering how serious an issue this is, and what can be done about it. Do I need to stop using my PC right away?

Here's a pic, highlighted the CPU cage I believe to be making the noise...

[Inkidu]

Okay, if you're certain it's coming from around the CPU socket then it could be a couple of things.

1. The mounting screws that keep your AIO pump pressed to the integrated heat sink on the CPU are loose and just need to be tightened (wrist tight, no need to really torque it).

2. The pump itself is dying. The way to diagnose this is to monitor your CUP temp and make sure it's not getting near 90-100 C. (Or if you monitor them regularly any really unusual jumps.)

The other thing I could think of, but would basically require you to get in the guts would be to check and make sure all of your standoffs are set properly so your motherboard is properly mounted. That's me stretching though.

[Galactic Druid]

Okay, this is going to label me as a complete newbie, but I don't really know what an AIO pump is or how to monitor my temperature....

[Inkidu]

Okay, that's fine.

So you see that glowing LED thing with the two hoses coming out of it? That's cooling your CPU. It is a liquid cooler or more correctly a all-in-one liquid cooler. You pull it out of the box and install it. AIO stands for all in one. So people just call it an AIO cooler. The four screws around it are what mount it to the CPU. Just take a standard phillips head screwdriver and see if any of those are loose. If they're not don't overly tighten them.

How to monitor your system: As this is a prebuilt you should have a piece of software pre-installed by the system integrator (the company you bought it from). They'll generally have some way to monitor your CPU temp. If not you need to go to the website of the manufacturer of your rig's motherboard and put in your motherboard details and download the system monitor.

The motherboard should be divulged in the system info of the machine you bought.

[Galactic Druid]

So I tried tightening the screws, only one seemed to really move at all with very light pressure. The noise is almost gone now completely though, I don't know if that was it or just moving everything around did it. I still hear a very quiet rattle only occasionally and only when I'm TRYING to hear it (which may be in my head lol), but it's definitely not noticeable any longer!

[Galactic Druid]

Oh darn, now I am hearing it again

[Inkidu]

Considering that those brackets are designed to be tightened in an X pattern (top right, bottom left, top left, bottom right for example). I'd go around in an X pattern if you haven't already and see if tightening one left room for the others (again just wrist tight). Other than that, keep an eye on your CPU temps to make sure it isn't your pump failing.

[Galactic Druid]

I figured out my motherboard and got a temp monitoring program. It doesn't look like the temperature is an issue, even when running my most intense games, the tempature isn't spiking, after about 20 minutes of running RE3, it was still in the 65 degree range. As far as I can tell, everything seems to be working, the sound is just worrying and annoying.

According to the motherboard guide, it does look like there is a fan in the heat sink. I'm half tempted to open it all up and dust it and check for anything, but I'm nervous about taking anything apart. Never done that before.

[Galactic Druid]

What would be considered a spike in temperature? it seems to stick around the high 50s to low 60s, but I have seen it jump up to 70 and go back down over a few seonds. So far I haven't seen it go past 70. Strangely enough this was during just normal web browsing.

[Galactic Druid]

I’m really worried I may have completely broken my computer. I decided to try one more time to adjust the screws, so I took all four out, and screwed them back in to make sure they were tight. I plugged everything back in, hit the power button and nothing. Not even an attempt to boot up, it’s like it’s not plugged in at all.

Did I just break my brand new machine over a weird noise?

[Inkidu]

Make sure your AIO's cable is in the correct header on your motherboard. It's really strange that just taking off your cooler would cause it not to boot. A lot of those headers can look similar so make sure it's seated properly. However, if your motherboard cannot find a cooling mechanism it might not boot for safety. Don't force anything. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, if the piece doesn't fit, don't force it.

EDIT: Also anything below 90 C is fine, so don't worry if it's not getting that hot.

[Inkidu]

As a pre-built you should have support lines to call too.

[Galactic Druid]

I'm back!

Turns out I disconnected the CPU from the motherboard. Thankfully, I didn't damage anything. The repair place I took it to was able to fix everything up and and replace the thermal paste for less than a hundred. They also told me the rattling was indeed the CPU fan, but it wasn;t bad enough to effect performance, I should just bring it in for maintenance after the quarantine.

[Inkidu]

I'm a little confused that you managed to disconnect the CPU from the motherboard. It's a component in a zero-force insertion socket that is held by a retention plate with a pretty hefty tension bar that's hooked under a latch. I've turned my motherboard upside down without issue. I wonder if it was sent to you with that issue. You'd know if you popped the retention bar up. It's under a lot of tension. When I put my CPU into its socket for the first time I swore when I was pulling that bar down it was taking so much more force than I was expecting that I swore I'd done something wrong, but nope that's just the way it is.

All's well that ends well.

[Fierbali111]

Weird why you would dissasemble your computer. A sound where the water pump is caused by air getting into the loop or a failing pump in general. There is no real fix, only that you make sure that the pump is in the lowest part of the loop so air doesn't build up there. Also water pumps die after a few years, some after a few months if defective. I'd use the warranty to cover the faulty water pump.