For lack of better wording: on startup of the system {always} and intermittently during use, there's what I'd describe as a grinding sound or a 'rattle' (lasts no more than a second each occurrence, and happens 1-2 times every 30 minutes or so).  At first I actually thought that this was my HDD's, or some fan bearing.  I went through everything one at a time disconnecting every device, fan, etc, systematically, and eventually swapping the videocard out.  ... Long story short, at this point I've determined that it's coming from the new card for certain. I also know that it's not the radiator fan nor VRM fan (as they've been disconnected briefly at startup for the sake of testing).  That leaves the pump as the culprit.
 
 
-- Is this normal?  Another friend of mine apparently has the same card, and also the same observed trait.  He wound up mounting the card vertically, which stopped the noises.  (I'm guessing that it's the pump impeller)
 
Unfortunately my chassis does not allow me to do a vertical mount far as testing that one.  Assuming this is normal behavior, any suggestions far as options go?  In jist, I'd hate to waste EVGA's time in an RMA over something like this (with an otherwise working-fine card) if it's the norm.