I’m seriously considering purchasing the Framework Desktop for AI work. However I’d really like to water cool the CPU as my previous CPU burnt up (appears it couldn’t handle running 24x7 at max for months). Anyone know if the motherboard supports an AIO water cooler like “Cooler Master’s MasterLiquid 120mm Close-Loop AIO Liquid Cooler“? I’m also unclear how the metal heat sink is affixed to the CPU, would it be easy to remove?
https://youtu.be/D7BehyQVVbU?t=960 Here’s someone removing the heatsink, I’m not sure what screw pattern it would match or if any existing mounting solutions would work for it though.
Also, anything you use to cool it will also need to contact all of the LPDDR5 chips, so it would probably need to be rather special.
The stock heatsink is very easy to remove but you will need a custom CNCd AIO contact plate that covers on one side APU, memory and VRM, like the stock heat sink but also has its non-standard mount. You’ll have to design that yourself as it does not exist.
The dimensions for everything (location of mounting holes, APU and memory modules) but the VRM are in the stp file for the mainboard on github: Framework-Desktop/Mainboard at main · FrameworkComputer/Framework-Desktop · GitHub
You could wing it of course and create an easier mount for the AIO just covering the APU, ignoring the rest but then your system will more likely burn up than if you simply leave the stock solution in place.
I don’t think you will have the same issue with the framework desktop. The cooling solution is definitely solid. In the review videos the fans weren’t even kicking on a lot of the time because they didn’t need too.
That said, I am still hoping the git repo gets an stl or stp of the cooler itself so we can use it as a base design to make fully compatible water block designs. That way you can use the same brackets and the block has the same vram and apu coverage as the default air cooler.
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