I’m doing a study on the framework laptop and I need to know if the vents at the bottom of the laptop are intake or exhaust and if hot air gets sent out the back or through the keyboard. Anyone that can help?
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The intake is through the vents on the bottom and the exhaust is out the back in the gap formed by the screen hinge.
You can see this in the design of the design of the fan housing, centrifugal devices like this fan “fling” air out and the housing is larger on the side where the airflow gathers. That and the arrow printed on top. 
Tell us more about your study?
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@Fraoch I am doing DT A level (which is 11th grade (I think ) in The US) and one of my concept ideas is a dock that the laptop can sit in to give it better cooling, graphics card, more I/O ext. but talking about cooling I will need to know how where I need ventilation (and which direction) so I don’t end up hindering preformance
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nice. You know its funny, I stumbled across this thread because I wanted to verify the same thing. Im going to mod a laptop stand with some MOLEX fans, then plug them into the PSU of my eGPU enclosure. This means my laptop will get extra cooling whilst gaming. I think the idea is genius, lets hope it works out.
I was looking for different options. I don’t think this one will be appropriate for a FW13 as the cooling is worse when the lid is closed. (from the CEO)
The exhaust is more restricted. You are probably best putting it on a stand with vents on and changing the project mode to second only if you don’t wan to use the FW screen. Personally, I think the fw display is still good as a third display for information that doesn’t have to be very visible like a yt vid or something.
The thermal performance will almost always be better with the lid open…with any laptop (when the lid is the only variable). (As heat naturally dissipate over the keyboard) i.e. What nrp said is factually very true. What’s not clear is the delta…however, I would imagine that if I can already run it with the lid closed & flat on a table at a satisfactory level, then standing it upright (lid still closed) should allow it to perform not as bad. i.e. Closed and up-right is the in-between…mid-range mode.
Also saw this the other day:
Interesting.
I have purchased this laptop / monitor stand:
I am hoping to mod it with some fans, though I am struggling on which ones to pick. Interestingly, the holes in the stand line up perfectly with the screw holes for a standard 120mm fan.
I have also purchased an ADT-Link UT3G as an eGPU dock. I now need to decide on either running some 12v fans off the molex connector of the PSU running the UT3G, or some 5v fans running off a connector that can be soldered onto the UT3G board. Any suggestions would be appreciated, also some 2nd hand or cheaper ones would be preferred.