Coolermaster debuts netbook-friendly cooling dock with 2.5″ HDD bay

Netbooks are great, but they’re somewhat more limited than a typical desktop. If you’re looking for a nice, inexpensive way to make your machine a little more desk-friendly, Cooler Master’s new Choiix dock might be worth picking up.

Based on the name, it looks like the dock might actually be manufactured by Choiix, rather than Cooler Master. But while Choiix offers a line of cooling pads with USB hubs, the Cooler Master Choiix dock adds a 2.5″ SATA hard drive bay which can support hard drives up to 500GB.

Laptops up to 15″ are supported, though it’s a prefect size for most netbooks. The dock helps keep your notebook’s internal temperatures down thanks to a reasonably quiet 8CM fan.

Cooler Master may not be first on the scene with this type of multi-purpose dock – Brad wrote about similar options in July and again back in 2008. But you can pick up a Cooler Master Choiix Air-Through Stash for $29.99 from Amazon, which makes it perhaps the most compelling option available right now. That’s only a few dollars more than a name-brand 2.5″ USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure will cost you, after all.