I assume the noctura fan is exhausting thru the side panel, but I watched a youtube video about the desktop that said the air exhausts out the front.
which is it?
thanks
dan
I guess you are referring to the main fan, the intake is from the side, Exhaust front and back.
You can add an optional intake in the front so hot air comes out the back. I have mine set up this way and everything stays very cool. I could add an outtake in the back but haven’t figured that out yet.
It’s worth noting also that if you’re not happy with the cooling solution in the Framework Desktop, you can buy the motherboard on its own, obtain a custom case, and design your own build.
thanks all who responded
dan
Do you any recomendations for a case?
Would I lose the (2) USB ports or is that a connectors on the MB if the new case has any front ports
thanks
I’ve not done a custom build myself, but I have been pondering one. I have been held back by a combination of doubting LLM feasibility and a horror at RAM price increases. 
There are various custom builds in this thread: For MB purchasers: what case are you getting?
I have a Soeyi U300, Sunon 9225 maglev fan on a shroud, fans pulling through a pleated prefilter + prefilter media on side and top mesh to prevent dust, added the cardboard scoop today to help it avoid sucking forward exhaust. No front intake but the heatsink gets almost ambient air.
I have a spare copper base plate (used to have a vapor chamber heatsink) if you want to be adventurous and solder on a water block. A thinner case with the stock cooler and single fan is also doable, I just really wanted the giant air filter.
I assume these can be wired up - however I don’t know what connectors are exposed on the FW mobo and whether they can be connected to the USB ports found on aftermarket cases. I expect there might be notes on that question in the thread I linked to.
I was also thinking of a back outtake and figured out a way to do it. It may not be the best, but it will surely help. I’m getting the stuff from Amazon shortly and will install them today. So:
- Two Coolerguys 30x10 mm fans will be installed inside, with adhesive stickers on the top left side of the back plate.
- One Noctua NF-A6x25 PWM will be installed (also with stickers) on the outside of the back plate on the right side, opposite of the front Noctua NF-A8 PWM.
All three are connected to Sys Fan 2 header with a Noctua NA-SC1 3-way splitter. I have to somehow drill into the back plate to bring the wires out for the 60 mm fan. It doesn’t matter to me that it will look kinda ugly because the machine stays hidden under my desk.
The 60 mm Noctua is PWM so it will be temperature controlled, but the Coolerguys are only 2-wire so they will run at full speed.
Some very rough calculations, which would be laughed at by an aerodynamics or hydraulics engineer:
The case volume is 4.5 L, so let’s say that the stuff inside reduces the volume to 4 L of air, although it may be less. That is 0.14 cubic feet (cf).
The 30 mm fan has an airflow of 4.55 cfm, which means each of them outflows in one minute about 28 times the case volume of hot air!
The 60 mm Noctua adds to the back outflow another 17 cfm, for a total of 26.
The 80 mm Noctua in front pulls inside about 33 cfm of fresh air.
The original 120 mm Noctua on the CPU has an airflow of 69 cfm, but that air is just moved around inside the case and pushed out only by inside pressure, not directly.
I anticipate a temperature drop of around 5-7ºC.
thanks all, I am without power since Sat night big storms thru MD so I am only spotty in responses. Estimate maybe Wed night
dan
If these are the locations I’m thinking of, have you considered maybe using a slightly more powerful fan in an existing spot? I don’t have a Framework case, so I originally put a plastic mesh I/O cover, but then I realized that was the primary exhaust location so I just cut all the plastic away. The mesh looks pretty tight to me, it probably adds quite a lot of back pressure.
30mm fans move a miniscule amount of air and have a very high pitched (albeit soft) sound that is more annoying than cranking up a bigger fan by 200rpm. You could try a boost converter on the existing fan, or swap to a higher speed 80mm fan.
I have a mATX case with a mesh top so I let the exhaust going forward vent out the top, that’s another possibility to think about if you value function over form (cut a vent hole in the top).
The rated cfm is usually at 0 resistance, pulling air through “that stuff inside” is likely more than 0 resistance and low speed axial fans usually have a massive drop with increasing resistance so I would be careful using those numbers in calculations.
Yes, I considered a different fan to replace the 120 mm Noctua, but could not find on the market one that is substantially more powerful with similar low noise level. So, that’s why I wanted to improve the intake and outflow. Thought that anything might help moving air through that crammed space. Like you, I added a dust mesh on the intake.
I installed the 80 mm in front and 60 mm at the rear. I’m not the type to do comprehensive benchmarks, but I already observe a drop of 4-5ºC with a typical home office workload and a bit of video editing, on the balanced or performance power levels. The two tiny fans have not arrived yet, but they can only improve it from there, especially when being installed in the part of the case that has the worst ventilation, near the PCIE slot.
On a home ambient of 26ºC, the APU sensor shows 36ºC. That should be good enough given that I’m planing to put a third SSD in that PCIe slot, which will contribute to raising the inside temperature.
It’s good to hear that you saw results. If you look at how the heatsink exhausts its air, it has one path going straight out the back, and one going against the flow of the case first. The heatsink fan run at maximum speed is relatively powerful and it breathes completely fresh air, so you should not be bottlenecked if you can properly exhaust the hot air. I would try a hole in the top of the case as a vent and just opening up the mesh at the back. Mesh is extremely restrictive.
I don’t have a dust mesh, I have a full pleated air filter haha. I have 2 120mm fans sucking through it at the bottom of the case and exhausting both upward and backward, and then cardboard to block the APU fan from sucking any hot air. Temp is the same as open case now.
My setup with the fan stuck on the outside back plate is ugly, but I would not make it even uglier with a hole on the side! Also, in my location the dust is a huge problem, so I’m keeping that plastic mesh even if it impedes the flow quite a bit.
While waiting for the two tiny fans, I did something else: I had two USB fans with speed control sitting unused on a shelf, so I put one of them such that it circulates the air over the left panel, where the main fan draws air into the case. It is dead silent on minimum speed and got the APU sensor at an unexpected 34ºC on a 27ºC ambient.
I mean you can cut a rectangular hole and stick mesh on it so it looks better? Mesh isn’t fine enough to stop most dust, my bottom filter is MERV5/G3, and I have a still more restrictive than mesh tissue-thin filter material over the top to prevent dust from landing inside.
Right now your 60mm fan has to pull air through the gap between the main fan and the case, it’s better if the air has a more direct path to escape.