I just built a PC:
- ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-H GAMING
- Intel i7 8700k
- EVGA Geforce GTX 1080 FTW 8 GB
- Corsair RMx Series, RM750x 750w
- Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SSD
- Seagate 2 TB FireCuda Gaming SSHD
- Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200 MHz
- Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Not currently OC'd, default specs.
Whenever I play audio (YouTube, foobar, VLC player, video games) I can hear a popping/crackling sound whenever I start or stop it. It's like the small crackle sound you hear when you plug in headphones/speakers. This also happens during playback, although not randomly – it's usually a specific part of the audio/video file that causes the popping. I can even find the particular "pop" spot and replay it.
Additionally, whenever I'm playing a video game I get random frame skips at random intervals. This happens in all my video games – WoW, Subnautica, Fallout 4, Dark Souls 3.
Originally I had the ASUS Prime z370-A which I thought to be the issue. But I replaced it with the ROG Strix and I can still hear the popping/crackling and the frame skips still happen.
Does anyone have experience with this issue? This is my first build over $1k and I'm very distressed that I cannot find the problem. Could it be the hard drives? RAM, maybe?