The lack of official communication on this thread is kind of staggering. This is clearly a huge issue and leaving the customers to solve it themselves is absurd. Very disappointing.
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Could this be any different? size is the exact same I think
Btw, did anyone who received a new PSU take apart their old one to see if there isn’t something obviously wrong with it, and which might be a relatively easy/cheap fix? Maybe something was not mounted properly? Or just like changing the fan to make it better, or completely fix it?
I was reading this post, where people reported high temps and communicated back and forth with support for weeks, while the issue was that the foil between the heatsink and the chip was not taken off… High temperatures, am I doing something wrong? - #22 by NOXI
Unless you are trained in the field I would never touch the internals of a PSU. You risk being electrocuted or creating a fire hazard by changing stuff.
The internals of the PSU are most likely produced by FSP and not touched by the OEM assembling the Desktop. FSP is a huge producer of PSUs and messing up stuff like that would be a safety critical issue which I doubt is the case. The used fan is from Delta and I doubt you’ll get much more powerful 40 mm fans. To reduce the noise one would need to use a weaker fan but apparently those are not sufficient, probably because the internals are fairly packed.
On the other side, there appear to be issues with the fan control of the PSU fan, as we had reports where the fan never kicks in, while the PSU is getting hot. On the other side there are units with only on/off controls, unlike the gradual speed control that Framework advertised.
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I’m returning my framework i’m gonna wait for a future version with a better PSU if possible!
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You will be asked to send your defective PSU back to Framework…
But there are several workarounds here in the forum. My solution was to add an external USB fan. It runs very slowly and quietly all the time, so the power supply doesn’t switch on. I think this is a design flaw. You don’t need a quiet CPU fan if the power supply makes so much noise. It doesn’t make sense.
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My Frameworl desktop arrived a few days ago and the PSU fan is really annoying me. At this price, it’s unacceptable, and as others have already written, it makes no sense to be able to select the CPU fan when the PSU is the bigger problem. I’ve now solved the problem for myself by setting the CPU fan to run at a minimum of 35%. Since then, the PSU fan hasn’t turned on and the Noctua fan is still barely audible. I can’t say whether this will also work in the summer, but hopefully Framework will have a good solution by then.
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Indeed, a design flaw, same with the PCIe slot. They should have just made the whole thing just a bit bigger, fit a bigger fan in the PSU with a better though-out intake, and leave space to use the PCIe slot. Also, if it had been a bit bigger, it would have fit a 92mm fan at the front instead of the 80mm one. Maybe even a 140mm CPU fan instead of the 120mm one, but this would be just a bonus.
I remember reading another similar comment and really don’t get how this would help? Like no airflow is going to the PSU this way. The PSU is enclosed in it’s own little box and has a tiny intake.
I can’t say why it works, but just give it a try 
My guess is that the increased airflow cools the PSU housing enough to dissipate heat so that the PSU’s internal sensor doesn’t trigger… Even when the CPU fan is off, the PSU fan only kicks in every few minutes. So it’s not that the PSU is so hot that it needs to be cooled by the fan all the time. And the additional airflow may be enough to eliminate the need for the fan.
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There is room at the front of the PSU and USB cables for a very small fan. I don’t know if anyone has tried that. Sunon make a range which included quiet PWM ones which, if I had the case, would be what I’d try
This would be something worth trying, to remove the PSU duct and install a small front fan there, maybe even a 60mm could fit.
TBH I think the space would be closer to 30mm … hence the Sunon suggestion
I wasn’t suggesting that although it’s also an option. I was pointing to the space at the very front of the case
The CPU fan being always on is not about airflow being directed into the PSU. It is about reducing the whole case being a hot box. The CPU fan, in the stock config, is the only source of active movement in the case (the PSU fan, if on, does move air on a completely isolated path) but without active air movement, the case will heat up considerably more than even with a slight amount of active air movement. I don’t know how much, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the difference in the case could be 10-20°C. That adds to the base temperature also for the PSU. There doesn’t need to be air movement for that. The heat is slowly building up, transferred via the plastic and metal, with some thermal loss along the way but 10-20°C more will still translate to close to 10-20°C more.
As the PSU fan control depends on the internal PSU temperature, that can make the difference in idle between hitting the temperature limit (and therefore turning on the fan) or not.
PS: I’d be interested to hear, what effect it has if one leaves the side panel off with and without always on CPU fan. How does that change PSU behaviour?
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Helped for me as well. Thanks for the hint. The sound stage of the CPU fan is much more enjoyable (not too surprising since it’s a Noctua in my case). Still an utter design failure by FW and the lazy/absent response here is not exactly confidence-building. Still a nice form factor and overall package, though.
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Hi All -
Since it’s been a bit since I posted here I wanted to let you guys know that our engineers are still working on this. It’s more complicated than one would think. We hope to have more information to share soon.
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@Eagle, thanks for the heads up. This is good to hear.
@Eagle Do you guys have a PSU duct stl to share?
I 3D printed an adapter to attach a Noctua FAN inside. I had a couple of failed tries before it finally fit.
If there is a demand I could put it into a webshop or something
That length is needed to bridge over the 2 USB-C front connectors
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where did you find this image?