So I was wondering if anyone had any ways to get better cooling for this laptop. I noticed that it draws air from the bottom and pushes it out where the hinge. Anyone have ideas or thoughts on this?
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For a thin and light this is a pretty standard and reasonable solution. because of the expansion card system and the thickness you can’t put intakes/heatpipe radiators around the back and sides like what ultrabooks and gaming laptops have.
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I have one of these. It’s amazing. Keeps the laptop downright chilly. Laptop Cooling Pads for Work & Travel | Targus
@Christopher_Doman I completely understand. I am just wondering about if you keep the laptop closed and use it like a desktop, that the exhaust of where the hot air is suppose to leave the computer is blocked. I just noticed this as my internal display is broken and while I am waiting on a new one I have been using it as a desktop for the time being. I’m just trying to think of a way to pull hot air from the back more effectively internally and externally. @Nixingit That looks like a great idea! But I want to make sure the hot air has a place to go from the back but that could work with cool air
David in all configurations there is actually an air gap down under the hinge as well. You shouldn’t worry too much about using it with the lid closed as yes, it does block some of the exit port, but leaves plenty of room in my experience. I also own exactly the same cooling pad as Nixingit and can confirm that it works extremely well. It cools even large gaming laptops very efficiently, and is massively overkill for the framework laptop.
You can place a thermal pad on the heatpipes so that more heat gets more passive cooling from the chassis and keyboard. You can also do the same on the other side of the mainboard by placing a themal pad between the backside of the CPU and the chassis. You have to make sure that the thermal pads have the right thickness, otherwise it might start bending the components or the parts won’t fit together again. Also you laptop will get a bit hotter to the touch with this
There’s not much room for performance improvement in these laptops. Framework’s cooling implementation allows for the CPU to sustain 28W at ~80C which is already very good. Keep in mind that the majority of laptops in this weight class are throttled to 15W or lower.
I see that many here are worried about the positioning of the fan outlets. However I fail to see the issue–they’re not blocked in any screen position. TBF it’s visually obscured in the closed position but it’s definitely not blocked. The air is leaving–just put your hand near it and you’ll feel it.
AFAIK there’s no inherent design flaw in the cooling system of this laptop, where a simple mod will get you any significant performance boost. If you feel that the chassis is getting too hot, then you should limit the CPU or use a cooling pad (which BTW only improves surface temps, not performance). If you’re unsatisfied with the performance of Tiger Lake-U at 50W boost/28W sustain then the only way to get your performance needs is to switch laptops.
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I’ll be trying my hand at a more in depth disassembly and measurement of internal clearances later this month though, so in the very doubtful event I find room for some extra heat sinks or somesuch I can post about it. From initial looks at the internals though, it really is jam packed with very little space to do anything more than add some thermal pads to add the chassis or keyboard to some of the heat dissipation. This isn’t typically a mod for everyone though - it can and will make the chassis uncomfortably hot to the unprotected lap.
Anyone removed the heat sink yet?
Trying to confirm the thermal pad thickness but don’t want to tear down just for that.
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Having the laptop sat on my desk plugged into an eGPU has me thinking about similar things. It’s very noisy plugged in even with the Windows power slider in the left-most position.
Step one would be fan-curve or throttling contol, it’s too powerful! I’m entirely GPU-limited playing Elden Ring, for example.
Skipping straight to later more fun steps, I’m making a quick prototype of a cooling pad for the dimensions of the Framework laptop so it can be a little more elegant than generic solutions. If I observe a noise or temperature difference I’ll then make something pretty from billet alu.
Another thought was a version of the palm rest/keyboard from copper, I’ve done this with the bottom-plate on another laptop before and had quite a lot of fun with it. A little steam-punk.
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I am curious too.
Why not two Noctuas while we are at it 
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It was hot to the touch for me before near the middle back.
Not so much now.
I didnt run metrics.
which fan did you get from amazon? mine gets so hot I cant hold it on my lap or chest (when laying in bed) even though I am simply reading a book on it.
Random but maybe applicable (I would actually buy it if it works):
Arctic has launched a new thermal paste MX-6 that says that it is viscous enough to prevent pump out effects, maybe it is worth a shot.