Are thermal pads/paste included in the DIY edition?

Framework Laptop 16
1

I was thinking about buying a DIY edition Framework 16, but I’m fresh out of thermal paste after repasting multiple PCs at once. So, I’d like to know what is included in terms of thermals to see if I have to buy new paste and pads or not.

2

yes, everything the laptop needs to work (including liquid metal cooling, which the fw16 uses instead of thermal paste, and is also pre-applied) is in the box if you ordered the diy edition

the only things that you’ll need that wont be in the box are ram/ssd/power adapter, and that’s only if you didn’t add them in the configuration

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3

The FW 16 (including DIY) makes use of phase-change liquid metal that’s pre-applied in the factory.

4

The DIY laptops (regardless of Framework 13/16) come with the fan and thermal paste/liquid metal pre-installed. There’s nothing you need to do and no reason to remove the fan.

The laptops don’t come with separate thermal paste or anything like that, but if you buy a replacement fan assembly, the paste comes pre-applied (at least on the Framework 13).

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5

You don’t need any Pads nor Thermal Paste, as mentioned before. The Liquid Metal is applied as a Pad+Barrier Assembly beneath the Cooling Solution. I removed them recently. There are more and more Users complaining about the Fw16 not beeing properly cooled as it runs really hard into the Thermal Limit with pretty wide Temperaturedelta between individual Cores. I got a Replacement Mainboard with the Cooling Solution preinstalled with better Performance, but still not in Line with what the 7840HS should have.
I suspect a Quality Issue with the Phase Change Liquid Metal, because after i replaced the Liquid Metal with PTM7950 my Tempdelta was less and my Performance even higher. You can see Pictures in the Batch20 Thread

6

Thank y’all so much for taking time to answer my question! Looks like I can procrastinate on spending 6 bucks at my local hardware store for some more years without much worry

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7

Be aware there is a foil over the Thermalpad (under the Midplate) for the NVME-SSD. They don’t memtion this in the Assembly-Guide.

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