Brando offers up laptop cooling pad with built-in hard drive dock

Brando's many peripherals certainly attract their fair share of derison, but it looks like the catch-all retailer may win over a few of the doubters with its new laptop cooling pad / USB hub / hard drive dock, especially considering its $33 price tag. That'll get you two fans that promise to keep your laptop from melting whatever surface it's on, plus three USB ports and, most interestingly, a slot that'll accomodate any 2.5-inch hard drive you might have laying around. Of course, there's always the slight chance that things could go completely haywire (or simply fall apart) but, if you want to give it a go, you can get your order in at the link below.

[Robotochan @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:08PM]

Surely a 3.5" bay would've been a better idea due to the cost and speed advantages of the larger drives?

[BigD145 @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:41PM]

I also figured more people would have a 3.5 inch hanging around, not a 2.5.

[i.c. weiner @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:26PM]

i have a foot long hanging around :)

[Luke D @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:48PM]

"I also figured more people would have a 3.5 inch hanging around, not a 2.5."

That's what she said.

[i.c. weiner @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:59PM]

@ luke d

Did she say that to you?

[Darshan @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:08PM]

can you string a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter out of that thing?

[Samboini @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:17PM]

Completely pointless; for the massive increase in physical for factor required you'd be much better purchasing a 3.5" USB external drive.

[Idlemind @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:12PM]

They should have gone the extra mile and gave you both sized PATA connectors as well as SATA and why not some soon to be obsolete Firewire ports....

[Ryan @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:13PM]

Brando! The Laptop Mutilator?

[neodorian @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:39PM]

It's got what laptops crave.

[Eric H @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:21PM]

Electrolytes?

[cwj @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:38PM]

(mad you guys said it first)

stupid sleep.

[Patriks7 @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:20PM]

Miso horny!


Sorry, too much SNL :$

[bangladeshiluv @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:26PM]

is there a slot back there for my penis?

[phanbouy fan fan @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:08PM]

the usual standard of engadget comments here today i see

[maxter @ Dec 3rd 2008 11:43AM]

@bangladeshiluv

You ask that... humm... because you don't have anywhere else to put it into, right?

Get a life.

[Chin-Poh @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:21PM]

Is this available or will be available in the U.S? I also wish it could have accomodated a 3.5" drive dock.

Whats the largest laptop it can hold? The laptop pictured inside the dock is a 12" Toshiba Portege R500/R600.

[Drew @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:35PM]

They already make those, (minus the cooling), you can buy the 3.5 and 2.5 bare SATA drive docks almost anywhere now... MicroCenter has them and i think brando was the first one to have one out ... but I could be mistaken.

[Hackettman @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:23PM]

Eh for the general user I think this is pretty nice..... Theres alot of times I have shot laptops come to my desk and would be great if I could slap the drives into my station and pull the info off......

[Scott @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:28PM]

Not to be picky, but it can't accommodate ANY 2.5" HDD - the adapter is SATA only

[jekoln @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:31PM]

at that price you know something should be spotty, so i'm guessing the construction on that thing must suck. like, it'd break in two months.

[iEye @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:32PM]

or over heat... :D

[Patriks7 @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:52PM]

Yes, an overheating cooling pad.. makes so much sense -_^

[Superevil @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:38PM]

douche!!

[mohammad7410 @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:39PM]

@iEye
I connected to my neighbor's WiFi just to low rank you again.

[Jack @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:40PM]

Uh.. it was by far not the first laptop to offer an SSD, and hard drives certainly are not responsible for the majority of heat produced by a laptop. I'm reasonably certain the Air has a CPU, GPU and chipset, but y'know maybe I'm wrong.

[Sam Stone @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:42PM]

Erm.

Lemme explain.

I tried to post a comment as iEye.

I didn't work.

[BigD145 @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:45PM]

I voted you up just so you could be highly rated for that statement. If factual, that would be quite the accomplishment.

[Esat Dedezade @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:46PM]

I'm ranking you both down.

And Mohammad, I literally lol'd, nice one :)

[Esat Dedezade @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:49PM]

Lol.

[Darshan @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:55PM]

@iEye? WTF? Where did you get mac from? I wasnt even talking about MAC

[Kenjis9965 @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:03PM]

Actually this is a neat idea, if it only used 3.5" drives instead [And wasnt built like junk]

I'd use it as a docking station, come home, stick the laptop on it, 1 cable and I have a 500GB backup drive in the thing and everything else at my house connected to it....

But alas, I don't have a laptop for the sheer fact that the couple times I tried having one, I ended up sending them back because they just couldn't do what i asked of them

[Bruce @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:06PM]

So you gotta plug two cables into your existing laptop. One for power for the fans and one for usb connectiveity?
Is that right?

[phanbouy fan fan @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:11PM]

what's a MAC?

[iCrap @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:18PM]

I'm stupid. :)

[Ethan @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:21PM]

I bought a microsd card reader from brando. Broke after a month.

[iEye @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:22PM]

I'm a dick head!

[Ethan @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:23PM]

These horse donkeys sound like amazing animals.

[Period.Man @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:27PM]

Hmm from the picture it looks like it would only accomodate most smaller laptops, which is slightly ironic since the small laptops aren't the ones melting table tops.

I have a XPS M1710... a fairly bulky laptop that runs pretty hot, and while this cooling pad would be awesome I'm not sure my laptop would even fit on it.

[phanbouy fan fan @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:28PM]

no explanation was needed sam

[cwj @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:39PM]

Does iEye win a prize once he's recognized as the single most low ranked commenter of all time? A Guinness entry perhaps?

[Nick @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:13PM]

Brawndo! It's what plants crave!

[Nick @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:14PM]

I see I'm not the first to make that connection.
*goes to corner to feel dumb now*

[rita hainsworth @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:21PM]

Is that a George Foreman Grill?

[iEye @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:24PM]

I LIKE TO SUCK BALLS!

[Craig @ Dec 2nd 2008 8:11PM]

Give it a rest buddy, you're just making a fool out of yourself.

[Sam Stone @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:50PM]

...My hero...

*Salutes*

[iEye @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:44PM]

So did you enjoy your I horse donkey d**k?

Sam stone?

you FAILED to mention...

[Sam Stone @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:47PM]

Well, at least I don't fail at life...

...or internet life for that matter.

[Jon Nelson @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:16PM]

A simple "Lol" comment got highest ranked?

You guys are waaay too nice.