Zalman ZM-NC2500 Plus Aluminum Notebook Cooler Dual Fans 2.5IN HDD Hotswap Dock - Black

Comment:
The cooler is more ideal if you are using as a dock and have external keyboard and mouse attachment. As stated in the cons, the item is not good for the hands long term.

Comment:
I bought this cooler based on the glowing review by the person with the Asus G73. I have an Asus G53JW and thought this woudl be a good fit since the two laptops are very similar.Before I continue, I will have to have a disclaimer that this is representative of my personal experience with this product combined with my specific setup.What enticed me to purchase the 2500 Plus was the look and the built-in HDD enclosure. It seemed like the rear intakes look like a perfect compliment to the rear exausts of the Asus G series gaming laptops. When put together, it looks especially mean and aggressive. The fit on the notebook was great. The width was almost perfect, while the length was just an inch or so bigger than the laptop.I did some benchmarks and torture tests to try to get a sense of what the cooler is capable of.My CPU, GPU and HDD temps at idle and max didn't change at all. They were identical with and without the cooler. So I've established that this does not lower the temp for any components for me.I didn't think I would get much of a temperature drop  to begin with. I would have been happy with 2 degrees. But absolutely zero change is not acceptable.The worst part is that when I plugged in the Y cable, Windows couldn't recognize the device. I tried restarting, reinstalling USB controllers, and plugging into different ports. I also tried finding drivers for the hub from Zalman, but no luck. I couldn't get this running. I couldn't use the HDD bay or the USB hub. Nothing worked.So now I'm left with a large piece of plastic that has no functionality other than raising my laptop to an angle.

Comment:
in-depth review for the benefit of those who want to know about this product.I bought this one when NCIX went on sale, paid around $50 for the thing. I was worried since the 2 fans are small for my liking and are located at the rear end of the cooler and the panel holes were quite low to where I want the exhaust/ airflow would go which is a bit higher on the rear end of my ASUS G73. basically, I prefer something with a bigger fan where it is directly installed flat below the panel to have a high concentration of the air directly below my heavy duty laptop. but since it's a Zalman and a highly recommended brand, I put my trust on the product and glad I did. since the G73 is a high performance laptop for heavy graphics and multi-tasking programs, it runs on two separate big fans of it's own to cool-off it's graphics card, RAM, HDD,cpu core but basically the whole motherboard. so the whole laptop is practically blowing off heat on a consistent basis and I have to contend with the annoying and distracting fan noise that the laptop produces. the heat registers at 78 degrees celsius which is very hot enough for it to be sitting on your lap.the NC2500 Plus I would guess was designed in a way to cool off the entire bottom of the laptop evenly. I tried to put my hand on the panel and was surprised how cold it was and there is a cool breeze sweeping underneath it eventhough my laptop was running for 5 days continuously without shutting off. I also put my hand on the underside of my laptop where I found the normally hot part, now as cool. also the laptop doesn't blow off some considerable hot air it was blowing in the past and the laptop fan load was reduced significantly in a way that it doesn't force or go into overdrive to keep the laptop cool which made the laptop fans considerably less audible (sounds like a very low-noise air conditioner)than a hairblower running at maximum output which my laptop sounded before. because of this, the temperature significantly dropped by 1/3 which is huge. the 2 fans btw are virtually quiet at minimum and acceptably silent a medium power and acceptably low noise at maximum power. for what it's worth, at maximum power, the laptop large fans drowns out the 2 cooler fans noise that you can't even hear it. I also found the 3 additional USB ports useful since I plug a lot of add-ons and the rear location of it helps removed the clutters on the side of my laptop. now I have 3 available USB slots for additional plugins. also, the hotswap dock is convenient since I have an additional HDD for backup rather than have it lying there as a clutter on the table.my only minor criticism is that they could had rubberized the foot part of the riser since it could scratch the table.riser is very valuable for me as this avoids me from slouching and thereby contributes to back pains.again, this is a highly recommended product to those who want to eliminate noise and heat at the same time.

Comment:
Out of the box this cooler does the job. I own a Gateway p7805u fx laptop and noticed when I was playing graphic intensive games (e.g. SC2 Beta on ultra settings) the laptop would perform poorly (lag). For a while I used a large household fan to cool my laptop but got tired of feeling like I was living in a tundra. I can tell this notebook cooler is going to outlive my laptop.