Are there laptop coolers that actually produce a lot of air and make a real difference?

I used to have an Asus aspire that would barely run games and overheat in less than two hours, I abused the crap outta that thing. Ended up getting one of those laptop coolers, had one fan in it and some sort of aluminum top. Really the cheapest thing you can find, and it did the trick. So I'm thinking you might be better finding another solution to your issue, something like cleaning the fans, or re-applying some thermal paste if possible.