Oh, I LOVE this! but… How? 
Is this limited to Linux? Or is there an specific application for that (similar to Asus Armory Crate, Lenovo Vantage, for example)? Is this only on BIOS? How much control does it actually really give you?
If it’s not too much trouble, can you show a few screenshots of this? (only when you have time, of course)
1 Like
It should be possible in BIOS and under Windows you could try the App SpeedFan.
I haven’t gotten around to try it on the framework yet, as I wasn’t to bothered by the fans but I guess it should work.
I also know that there are programs to fine tune the power usage (my brother uses one) but I can’t tell you the name right now.
Is manging the CPU power in Windows not good enough?
On Windows, you can disable turbo boosting via power settings. Google around and you’ll find a registry key that shows this option again.
Beyond that you can use the power saving modes, by clicking on the battery and sliding it all the way to the left. This changes the TDP settings for the chip, such that it pulls less power. Less power means less heat.
Now your workload is going to determine the rest.
As a point of reference, I have 6 workspaces with about 13 programs open. These programs range from music player and browser to things like VMWare Workstation (with running Linux VM) and Visual Studio. The temps stay right around 38-42 C. The fan noise is inaudible to me. My work environment at home and in the office are not whisper quite.
I’m running Linux now with the exact same workload (program wise) and the temps are the same.
My personal opinion is that the fan noise on the Framework laptop is not louder than the x220t and x230 that I have. Both are significantly louder, and their fans are ALWAYS running.
3 Likes
Notebookcheck:
X220t: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-ThinkPad-X220T-4298-2YG-Convertible-Notebook.60217.0.html
X230 (max 39-40dB(A)): https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X230-2306-2AU-Laptop-Review.75317.0.html
W520 (max 39-40dB(A)): https://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-ThinkPad-W520-Notebook.53220.0.html
Framework (max 47-48dB(A)): https://www.notebookcheck.net/Framework-Laptop-13-5-Review-If-Microsoft-Made-A-Repairable-Surface-Laptop-This-Would-Be-It.551850.0.html
Maybe time to re-paste those ThinkPads you have if you haven’t done so. (To make sure they’re still functioning in-specs)
Having said that, capability / speed of the CPU come into the picture: Framework being the newer / faster laptop, it can handle more processing in shorter time. i.e. Old systems will be under load for longer…and longer fan on time. But the older Thinkpads are incapable of being louder than the Framework laptop (their fans are not as loud).
Or maybe your hearing / ears are just less sensitive to the fan noise frequency from the Framework laptop (predisposition).
Batch one 1185 user and I don’t think I’ve ever heard the fan. Maybe, just maybe, when I installed Windows 10, but that’s it.
Probably not doing intensive enough tasks to max out the CPU.
2 Likes
I would say definitely fans are louder than other laptops I’ve used but they are linked to cpu intensive tasks. It’s not like they randomly ramp up. General usage for i7 hasn’t needed the fan to spin up. Although as they say YMMV.
1 Like
11th gen here, using Linux. Idle desktop, word processing or simple websites = completely silent.
Complex websites or the occasional compiler run = moderate swoosh noise; pretty much tolerable (no high pitched sound components).
Video encoding or playing 3D games = very audible “wind noise” with a slight hight-pitch buzz. Yes, there are more silent laptops with comparable computer power but only A1 CPU powered ones or bigger ones. So, I’d say in the market of Intel subnotebooks you are getting quite what can be expected within the boundaries of the technological base.
3 Likes
Have you installed & configured intel VA API video acceleration ?
chrome://gpu/
4 Likes
Given the previous posts idea, I may add that using Win 11 watching catchup TV for hours on end and the fan doesn’t kick in at all. Maybe your videos are of a much higher quality?
2 Likes
I haven’t explicitly, so if that’s not something included with Fedora or Firefox, then I probably haven’t. I’ll definitely look into this. Thanks for the tip!
It is loud, but for me, it ONLY comes on when I’m doing very heavy CPU intensive tasks like rendering video files or gaming. 99% of the rest of the time, it’s completely silent.
2 Likes
I echo the previous post, essentially silent for normal operation, and I run Qubes, so my normal operation means ~14 VMs running concurrently. Really pushing the CPU load will get the fan on, but I’ve never found it to be exceptionally loud, at least compared to most other laptops I’ve used. Vast majority of the time I forget it even has a fan on
2 Likes
The fan noise was very significant particularly as Win 11 opens from shut down for me (USB-C dock connected with two monitors). I carried out the following changes to set turbo boost to ‘Efficient Aggresive’ (didn’t disable completely) and this did help for a number of weeks, until the noise just started again. I’m going to try turning off Turbo Boost entirely. Reddit - Dive into anything
Fan is very noisy. At startup, and also during any windows update or other seemingly trivial tasks. I have 13th gen and it is quite annoying. Had I known about this I would have bought something else.
Windows user here, framework 13th gen, fans are terribly noisy. Startup and windows update are excruciating. Disappointing.
You may want to record it, with some other background noise and contact support officially. Sure I can hear mine in your mentioned scenarios at Start up and Updates especially when updating the BIOS, but rarely any other time, and it’s rather quiet even then.
You may have a faulty or misaligned fan??
1 Like
The Framework laptop is the best laptop I’ve ever had, but it’s getting a lot of bad press about fan noise recently. I’ve only had occasional problems with fan noise when running more demanding apps. However, when I installed Virtualbox under Ubuntu-MATE 22.04.3 and tried to run Windows 10 as a guest OS my laptop fan was so LOUD it was terrible trying to use it. The CPU load was not very high, but some of the cores were reaching 100C and making the fan run at full speed.
I trawled the Internet looking for a solution and soon realised that this is a well trodden path. I discovered lots of people with the same problem and negative comments by reviewers about fan noise. Until now, I’ve been using my Framework 12th gen. laptop for tasks that don’t require much CPU, but I want to use it as a desk-top replacement and the fan noise is a BIG problem.
The majority of work-arounds and fixes that I’ve seen are aimed at stopping the OS (Linux mainly) from ‘boosting’ the CPU. This is not much use for BSD or Windows users and I did some experimenting with the BIOS settings. The base frequecy of the 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P in my 12th gen Framework laptop is 2.1GHz, which is fast enough for most of the things I want to do. I don’t really need the turbo ‘boost’ to be enabled by the OS kernel, so I’ve disabled “Intel (R) SpeedStep™” in the BIOS - No other changes.
I now have a quiet Framework 12th Gen laptop that can run two Google Chrome profiles. Mozilla Thunderbird, several terminals and Windows 10 under Virtualbox with core temps around 50C with the fan spinning slowly and almost silently. Before, most of the cores were idle and one or two peaked at 100C when boosted. Now, none of the cores are boosted and performance is quite acceptable in return for the peace and quiet!
As you can see in the second picture, I have a HDMI and two DP monitors connected: I saw reports that these might be the cause of the fan noise, but it was just the same using only the laptop display…
And, @Matt_Hartley, yes I am running the oem kernel you suggested 
Bye,
Tony Travis
3 Likes
I have deactivated turbo boost on tmy 12th gen aswell, which generates noise of course (that s where you get the 60W power max).
I agree with the previous comment, this laptop is the mosst silent I had in the past years. Better than Lenovo E570 for example.
I am currentely whatching a movie with 20 tabs in chrome and cannot hear the fan even when muting the video …when I put my hear on the fan I think I can hear a little noise… butwouldn t be sure it is the fan, if I didn t knew it was there !
The only case I get some noise is when using heavy app like OBS recording and streaming mutliple things with IA noise reduction and compressors, 2 cameras…
And of course gaming.
Now with AMD I guess it s even better they have 5nm CPUs , so for the same task it should use 4 time less power and fan 