Same here. I was aware of the possible misalignment, so i was also very careful not to tilt the Noctua fan whilst installing it - its a very tight fit indeed, but being careful ensured that the fan installation succeeded without significant resistance in my case.
Adding a data point: Noctua A12x25 G2 PWM (bought from Amazon) drops right in. No friction.
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Same. When I got mine the other day, I had a bit of trouble getting the fan seated at first, and feared I had fallen victim to this. But being very careful to align the holes and make sure the fan was completely level and descending at all four points simultaneously ensured the fan seated properly.
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I also had a problem with the Noctua fan. The issue for me was getting the axis of the holes perfectly parallel to the posts which is hard to do with such tight tolerances. I took a page from my previous life in the mechanical engineering world and put a small chamfer (1-2 mm) on the hole on the side where the post enters using a sharp knife. This made installation very easy and didn’t mess with the post/hole clearance which reaming the hole would do. It might not work in all situations if the posts are way out of line but could be worth a try before reaming the holes or bending the posts.
I had the same issue; in what is only, I think, a mild case of tool misuse - using the screwdriver to bevel the fan shroud holes ever so slightly did the trick.
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Batch 16, and I used this method to fit the Arctic P12 Pro A-RGB fan. Thanks for the tip 
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Batch 17, Noctua fan slid in perfectly.
I ordered my framework desktop 5 days ago and just got it. I had the same issue, unable to perfectly align the noctua fan.
Just like @ooo, I was able to simply use the philips head screwdriver that came with the kit to bore out the hole a bit. Just a few twists in each hole was enough, and it was surprisingly easy! Still, it is a bit disappointing to encounter this issue at all.
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Mine was a tight fit but after a couple minutes futzing with it, it popped on without modification. They were a long couple minutes though to be sure.
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Oh funny, mine also didn’t fit. I had to take off the top of the computer to kind of jam it in. One of the corners didn’t quite fit. With a bit of force and better leverage with the top off, I was able to get it in. I think it has to do with the fan mounts on the heat sync being slightly misaligned.
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Let me chime in as one more person for whom the Noctua fan didn’t fit well on the first, or tenth, attempt, but that I was eventually able to get it into place with no modifications and without damaging either the fan or chassis. Be careful, but also be reassured that you’re not alone and that if you fiddle with it enough you can probably get it into place.
Mine also didn’t fit. Took a few minutes of futzing with it to make sure it was leveled really well, then that didn’t work but I futzed some more until it was on. I didn’t bevel out the holes in the fan but it seems like that would have helped.
I’m happy that people have success in getting it to fit without modification, but…
Let me chime in as a person who tried several dozen times with a lot of different techniques and it never fit. Then I measured the holes in my fan and the posts on the heatsink and verified that it was impossible for mine to fit in any orientation by at least a mm of overlap.
We don’t need tolerances that require you to try even more than once to get the fan on the heatsink for this kind of use case.
Another Noctua fan not sold through Framework just dropped on with no fiddling at all. “No fiddling” doesn’t do it justice, there was clearly plenty of wiggle room on its fit, but it locked in plenty tight when screwed down.
Something is clearly off about the holes on this particular model of fan causing unnecessary difficulty in assembling the product. This model is custom made for Framework by Noctua and something appears to be off about the molds they created for it.
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Batch 17 here. Unfortunately, the drill was the only solution in my case. I tried all orientations and a “bit” of force but only the drill in one of the holes did the trick. After that, cross pattern screwing nice and easy. It’s a shame though, having to resort to that on a build was a first for me.
Still gathering parts for my build (bought mainboard only), is it confirmed that this issue is present only for the custom HS variant of the noctua fan? I’ll happily just grab a standard noctua fan off of Amazon if that’s the case.
Probably a better idea. I got my noctua fan from the framework kit. I also went for the mainboard only.
I hit the same issue. Just took a rat tail file, 1-2 turns each hole, and fifteen seconds later it fit perfectly. The amount of material I removed from each hole was almost imperceptible.
I just got my Framework Desktop (ordered Feb 6th, 2026) and had a very similar problem. It immediately reminded me of this video with the Seneca keyboard designer talking about designs being over-constrained (time code link). It seemed like I could always get 2 holes in either side of the fan to slip on to the pegs coming off the heat sink. But once that side slipped on it would cause the other side’s 2 holes to be at an angle. Making those 2 holes so they wouldn’t fit. The challenge was making it so all 4 holes lined up at once, without any of those holes slipping onto the pegs, and causing the other holes to be at an angle making the pegs unable to fit in.
I ended up taking inspiration from other’s approaches with screws. But instead I only used the screws to line up the fan properly, then it just slid right down with no resistance.
- Lay the fan in the correct orientation (cable on the top edge) but so none of the 4 pegs are going into the holes
- Place the 4 screws for the fan in the holes at the corners of the fan (Do not tighten the screws down)
- Wiggle each of the screws until they are sitting inside the tubes which are raised off the heat sink, after this the screws would be ready to be screwed in
- Gently wiggled the fan and it should just slip right on
- Take the screws off, they were just acting as alignment guides
This is worked on my fan and heat sink. I hope it will work on yours, but maybe our tolerances will be different.
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My Framework Desktop arrived yesterday and after 10 mins of trying I found this thread. I considered filing two of the holes, but instead I just persisted with hovering delicately above the four holes and tried different rotations. Eventually, one just worked and it slotted down onto the pegs.
