Best Cooler for my Asus G50vt-x1 Gaming Laptop

Hello Everyone, I've just recently started looking at coolers for my laptop. I've already tried at least 3 coolers and I'm not sure if I've seen any improvements.

First off, my laptop is an Asus G50vt-x1 laptop. I use it mainly to play games and it gets really really hot to the point where the left side of the keyboard is seriously hot and the exhaust actually hurts your hand when you touch it. So I decided to invest on a good cooling pad. Here's the picture of what it looks like under:



As some of you already know, that big circular silver thing isn't actually a vent. I opened it up to clean it and was surprised to find out it was actually covered and no holes to let air inside or outside. As I've read from one of the posts here, removing it is not recommended since even if it makes the GPU and CPU cooler, it will make the Ram and HDD hotter. The exhaust is on the side where that circular silver thing is located.

My first 2 cooling pad that I tried where based on that silver circular exhaust that I thought pulls air in but I was wrong.

First cooler I bought was the Belkin cooling pad that was like 14.99. I got it because it's cheap and it said that it was a top rated cooling pad according to cnet. I wansn't sure if it did anything.

Second cooler I bought was the Targus Chill pad and I wasn't really impressed. I didn't see any difference. And I read here that it wasn't recommended.

Third cooler that I got and am using right now is the Cooler Master Notepal U3 with the 3 80mm fans that I could position anywhere. I positioned the fans to where the holes are in the picture. One in the middle to where the rams are located, one in the lower right where the cpu or the gpu is located (The holes under that silver circular vent like thing) and one on the lower left to where the hard drive is located.

I've done some gaming last night. The laptop still gets hot especially on the sides I mentioned that gets really hot.

I just found out that also the Cooler Master Notepal U2 only has two fans but the fan speed of both of them is 2000rpm instead of the U3's 1800rpm at max will the matter? Also, the U2 is only $12.99 at Micro Center right now while the U3 is $34.99. The 3rd fan to me is basically useless since I don't feel or see the hard drive getting hot. I just put it there since I didn't know they couldn't be separated. Now I'm planning on getting the U2 version and returning the U3 version since the fans are much faster and could possibly put in more air on the vents where they matter most.

My question is, are there any laptop coolers out there that would be best than these on my asus laptop? I'd like to be able to buy in person if I could please since I really need it right now (with FFXIV out already) and I'd hate to have to ship it back if it doesn't work out for me. My budget is 40 dollars.

All the 3 coolers I got, I got from stores near me and were able to return them.

Here are the list of stores I have and these are close to me to buy in person:

Microcenter

Tiger Direct

Edit: I also looked at the coolers guide on this forum but most of those coolers, I have to buy online. I've tried searching to see what stores might have them but most of them seem to be online orders only.
Thank you in advance and I apologize for the long post.

 

Yup both the coolers you have tried have not had very good feedback.

I dont think the U2 or u3 would be the best solution since you have so many vents spread out the front.

The Zalman NC2000 would be your best but and since your budget is 40$ you should look in the used market. There may be a couple in the market place.

Here are some benchmarks with basically the same notebook as yours with that cooler. http://forum.notebookreview.com/acc...eview-w-pictures-asus-g50vt-undervolting.html

 

Thanks, I got the U2 cooler together with this thermaltake external usb fan with 3000 RPM.



All in all, it costed me 36 bucks. The set up is doing wonders on my laptop right now especially when gaming. I have the fans from the U2 cooler underneath where the major vents are and the thermaltake external usb fan is in front of the exhaust helping in sucking out the hot air. I was able to figure out how the cooling on my laptop worked. At least I think that's how it's supposed to work.

It seems the stock fan that was inside the laptop was in there to just push hot air out and as it pushes hot air out, it also pulls in air from the vents, much like some type of vacuum, hot air comes out to the exhaust, cool air comes in from the vents. The external usb fan I bought is there to help the stock fan suck out more hot air since it's not sucking out enough hot air which in turn makes the surface above it and the exhaust really hot.

The 2 fans from the U2 cooler helps in bringing cool air in from the major vents. I did some gaming last night and my laptop was never really hot to the touch. It was actually just warm to the touch the whole time. It never got really hot and I am really pleased with it.

I'm happy with this set up since I never bring my laptop anywhere, it's just in this same place in my room serving more like a desktop.

I'll keep that zalman cooler in mind once I begin bringing my laptop on trips. I have a feeling I'll be traveling a lot the next coming months. Thanks a lot.