Brando offers up laptop cooling pad with built-in hard drive dock
By Donald Melanson 
posted Dec 2nd 2008 2:02PM
posted Dec 2nd 2008 2:02PM
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 $33 price tag. That'll get you two fans that promise to keep your laptop from melting whatever surface it's on, plus three USB ports and, most interestingly, a slot that'll accomodate any 2.5-inch hard drive you might have laying around. Of course, there's always the slight chance that things could go completely haywire (or simply fall apart) but, if you want to give it a go, you can get your order in at the link below.
Surely a 3.5" bay would've been a better idea due to the cost and speed advantages of the larger drives?
I also figured more people would have a 3.5 inch hanging around, not a 2.5.
i have a foot long hanging around :)
"I also figured more people would have a 3.5 inch hanging around, not a 2.5."
That's what she said.
@ luke d
Did she say that to you?
can you string a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter out of that thing?
Completely pointless; for the massive increase in physical for factor required you'd be much better purchasing a 3.5" USB external drive.
They should have gone the extra mile and gave you both sized PATA connectors as well as SATA and why not some soon to be obsolete Firewire ports....
Brando! The Laptop Mutilator?
It's got what laptops crave.
Electrolytes?
(mad you guys said it first)
stupid sleep.
Miso horny!
Sorry, too much SNL :$
is there a slot back there for my penis?
the usual standard of engadget comments here today i see
@bangladeshiluv
You ask that... humm... because you don't have anywhere else to put it into, right?
Get a life.
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.
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.
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......
Not to be picky, but it can't accommodate ANY 2.5" HDD - the adapter is SATA only
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.
or over heat... :D
Yes, an overheating cooling pad.. makes so much sense -_^
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.
douche!!
@iEye
I connected to my neighbor's WiFi just to low rank you again.
Erm.
Lemme explain.
I tried to post a comment as iEye.
I didn't work.
I voted you up just so you could be highly rated for that statement. If factual, that would be quite the accomplishment.
I'm ranking you both down.
And Mohammad, I literally lol'd, nice one :)
Lol.
@iEye? WTF? Where did you get mac from? I wasnt even talking about MAC
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
So you gotta plug two cables into your existing laptop. One for power for the fans and one for usb connectiveity?
Is that right?
what's a MAC?
I'm a dick head!
I'm stupid. :)
I bought a microsd card reader from brando. Broke after a month.
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.
These horse donkeys sound like amazing animals.
no explanation was needed sam
I LIKE TO SUCK BALLS!
Give it a rest buddy, you're just making a fool out of yourself.
...My hero...
*Salutes*
Does iEye win a prize once he's recognized as the single most low ranked commenter of all time? A Guinness entry perhaps?
Suppose I get one of these laptop cooler thingies. Then I plug all types of USB dongles hanging off of it. I can see my self sitting there thinking, "Now, why did I buy a laptop?"
Is derison anything like derision?
Brawndo! It's what plants crave!
I see I'm not the first to make that connection.
*goes to corner to feel dumb now*
Is that a George Foreman Grill?
So did you enjoy your I horse donkey d**k?
Sam stone?
you FAILED to mention...
Well, at least I don't fail at life...
...or internet life for that matter.
A simple "Lol" comment got highest ranked?
You guys are waaay too nice.
Hey, I thought about it long and hard before I posted it.
I was going for something simple, yet edgy in the sense that it was the perfect fir for such a hilarious comment.
Don't diss my art!
@cwj
well, there's still clak
So it is less convenient than a cheap 2.5 external case, but twice the cost?
My immediate reaction was that it was kind of cool, then I realized it's like adding a flashlight to a power strip.
A 3.5 would be much more interesting, but those docks for bare drives seem fine anyway.
Putting the ports to the back was one of the stupidest things to do, really. Now you gonna have to bend over your laptop every time you wanna plug or unplug anything. So unergonomic. I hate this kind of nonsense.
Besides, I'm kinda sad, but still find it interesting, that Engadget comments are used by people to evacuate their frustration. I guess your jobs really suck*. Sorry for you. : /
* or that you don't have one.
I'm not the real iEye, I'm just his pet troll