Hi all! A quick and simple question for the new Framework 16:
How loud are the fans under load at 100% usage, and when throttled to 99% usage?
This is close to my dream computer. Being able to produce music, use Blender, and game on one machine with the freedom to take it around as the brains of my live music setup, recording, etc etc… it sounds amazing. This seems definitely possible for my use case with the OCuLink kit, I’m close to selling my desktop to be honest!
I’m not looking to eliminate all noise, that’s just not possible. It’s just extremely important for me to know how loud it is. If anyone has these details please let me know!
1 Like
With the “turbo boost” feature on modern CPU, it may consume as much power as 100% when loaded as little as 20%. Since power consumed by the CPU converts to heat. The fan RPM(and the noise) should be the same from 99% to 100% load
Ah okay! Then to rephrase it’d probably be “How loud are the fans with turbo boost and under 100% CPU stress, and then when throttled to a lower load/no turbo boost?”
There are lots of fan noise discussion in this thread Uneven CPU thermals!
The FL16 already swapped to PTM7958 on newer batches so the noise should be noticeably smaller. However, it’s hard to find the exact decibel values, searching or manually scrolling.
mine has dgpu when not playing games its quite quiet (now that I have done the LM->PTM)
but producing music.. you woudl probably wear headphones? if so then I the fan noise does not seem to be noticeable at all (I’m 52 and have tinnitus so take my data with grain of salt 
That’s really promising, would you be able to use a phone or something with an app that measures decibels?
It depends on what’s going on in the studio! Sometimes you wear headphones, other times sound is playing from speakers with instruments plugged in so others can hear it. I’m mainly thinking about live sets. My audio rack has the potential to be portable and I’ve started doing musicals, if I was in the pit and the laptop sounded like a jet engine that’d be pretty bad.
ok installed some DB app on my iphone.. iphone laying about 20cm away from the laptop.. pointed at it.. but away from the air flow…
the tv is on with talking.. other than that its a fairly quiet living room…
when not doing anything in particular.. its sitting at 45ish dba bouncing with the talking to to 50ish..
if i use the Framwork Control app (forget who made it but its form the comunity) and set the fan duty cycle to 100% the dba meter reads 60-65dba
this is probably the least scientific measuring.. but yeah.
I did a quick check. I manually cranked the fans up to 100% using Framework Control and then moved my phone around until I reached a maximum dB value as reported by the microphone. The maximum I was able to get was 79dB placing the phone behind the laptop next to the rear exhaust. It was about 60-65dB when placed above the vent on top next to the keyboard, and placing it near where my head is at my desk brought it down to about 45-50dB. My ambient is about 35dB.
I have a gen 1 RX 7700s dGPU module.
Anecdotally, I don’t think my fans ever hit 100% while under load. When gaming, idk exactly what % they’re at, but it sounds closer to 70%, which is quite noticeably quieter to the ear, although it returns the same dB value on my phone.
Note: the expansion bay shell is significantly quieter than the dGPU, but I don’t want to go through the hassle of swapping it out right now.
Thanks guys! This seems pretty similar to my current old, kinda busted laptop which seems promising. If with the expansion bay shell it’s overall quieter and after a bit of messing around I’m sure it’d work nicely for my use case. Power profiles and whatnot.
Only other thing I found is this thread: 5400hz sound from dGPU fan on new Framework 16, which hopefully isn’t going to be relevant for me.
Just have to now wait for when the OCuLink kit is available…