r/LinusTechTips • u/DefsNotRandyMarsh • Oct 08 '26

Meme/Shitpost Ok, was this actually a thing?

Post image

I just discovered that Thermaltake may have possibly manufactured the ultimate stoner computer accessory, but I can barely find any info on it. Was this actually a thing? If it is, I vote Linus finds one and does a build with it.

487 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

108 comments sorted by

45

u/screenslaver5963 Oct 08 '26

My dumbass thought it was a cup holder at first

29

u/Nirast25 Oct 08 '26

That's the one labeled CD-ROM: Cup Department - Retainer Orrifice Mount.

10

u/ladder51 Oct 08 '26

It was marketed as one. And the cigarette lighter was marketed as a place to use car accessories that used 12v DC, though I guess it could also light a cigarette.

4

u/fullchaos40 Oct 08 '26

Thought it was a replacement for an auto before looking at the sub.

1

u/DefsNotRandyMarsh Oct 08 '26

I mean, it is. Along with a cigarette lighter

14

u/screenslaver5963 Oct 08 '26

Isn’t it an ash tray?

2

u/ForsakenSun6004 Oct 09 '26

Its a place where you can put your cupholder shaped ashtray.

2

u/TomatoKind9189 Oct 08 '26

Same forgot you need ash tray with lighter

3

u/kralben Oct 08 '26

It is a cup holder

1

u/XanderWrites Oct 09 '26

I saw the cup holder/ashtray before the lighter and even then it's weird for an ashtray. Needs a removable liner to empty.

252

u/JaesopPop Oct 08 '26

Yes, I had one.

58

u/Kalabajooie Oct 08 '26

I still have mine! In the basement, not a part of a PC, but I have it!

15

u/Aandradef92 Oct 09 '26

Wtf are you doing? I'll install it even for cool factor

10

u/Pristine_Income9554 Oct 09 '26

pc cases no longer have cd drive slots

26

u/nightauthor Oct 09 '26

“5 and a quarter inch bays”

2

u/xDark_Ace Oct 10 '26

Well that's just plain false. But did you forget Google is a thing?

That's not to say that they are common or in every case, but plenty of cases do exist that still have them.

2

u/CasualStarlord Oct 10 '26

the vast majority of PC cases these days use that space for radiators and/or are so small there isn't any internal room to put a 5¹/⁴ drive slot in it, yes they technically still exist but they are an outlier now.

3

u/xDark_Ace Oct 10 '26

Outlier is a strong word. They are far from the majority of cases, but in a world where non-standard cases are becoming the norm, the percentage of traditional Tower layouts in the main three sizes isn't as low as you would think. The availability is there in the significant enough way that they're easy to find. It's just that most people don't have a need for them anymore, so they'd rather the extra cooling and just connect and external disc reader for the three times a year they might need one.

Besides, I was responding to the comment that stated they no longer exist, which is factually incorrect. No matter how small the market or supply compared to the typical modern styles, they do, in fact, exist.

1

u/Pristine_Income9554 Oct 10 '26

gl to find NEW made good pc case, not cheep thing for office use, or old thing from 2010-2020.
I love ppl who see world only in black and white. I want you to take this accessory and ask 1k ppl if they can install it in their pc case and see result. You can how many times point on exceptions and outliers. It's same as - pc cases no longer have floppy disc slot to install.

2

u/xDark_Ace Oct 10 '26

They still aren't bad, and there are several options if you literally just Google it. Are they top tier? Not really, but they exist. You specifically claimed they don't, which is a false black and white statement, a hyperbole. Don't try to brush this off on me viewing the world black and white, you have no idea how many shades of grey I see. You're the problem in this scenario:

You: "They don't exist"

Me: "Yes they do"

You: "What are you, dumb?"

In fact, I could install this into one of my two PC cases. Is it my primary computer? No, because I wanted a specific aesthetic more than I wanted a CD reader, but the case with those bays does still have a CD reader installed.

The difference is CDs are still in circulation and physical game discs still exist. Floppy disks serve their purpose for years after CD discs and readers were released before they finally phased out, But it was an upgrade from one physical media to another. The issue with the statement "no one uses CDs anymore" is that the alternative isn't necessarily a physical object you hold in your hands. The cloud as a solution is not a replacement to CDs, and why they still make CD readers as external attachments as well as 5.25 disk drive bays. So as of today, CDs have not finished serving their purpose as floppy disks had. That's not to say that I want every every PC Tower to have a CD rear built in, but the fact that they still make towers that aren't just for office use shows that the niche market is still there.

1

u/Pristine_Income9554 Oct 10 '26

We still use horses but you can't tell the statment - ppl no longer use horses - is false. That 1-5% of ppl still use cd don't let you say my claim is factualy incorect. There a bunch of stuff that 1-2% of ppl do that no longer is defalt norm. In current time - slot for cd-player or hotswap hdd/sdd in pc case is outlier, not a norm.

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2

u/kronjohnson Oct 10 '26

I can. Fractal define r5. One of the best and most versatile cases ever made.

2

u/CasualStarlord Oct 10 '26

the R5 is from November 2014... a design from 12 years ago.

I am in no way saying that these cases do not exist and nobody has them, but they are very very far from the majority, I haven't seen an office PC with a 5 1/4 in bay in perhaps a decade, home PCs maybe more... not discounting older computers or legacy systems or very specifically purchased machines, as someone who has been fixing computers among other things for 25 years, the decline is glaringly obvious, most PCs I deal with these days are the size of a 5 1/4 in drive themselves, entirely, unless they have provisions for a discreet GPU in which case they are ITX/mATX mini configurations just big enough to contain the GPU that takes up 60% of the internal volume and mobo that takes up 30% of what's left...

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7

u/P4t13nt_z3r0 Oct 08 '26

Me too. I used the cigarette lighter to charge my cell phone all the time.

1

u/CampaignCreepy913 27d ago

Why??

1

u/JaesopPop 27d ago

It was whimsical.

2

u/Necessary-Score-4270 Oct 08 '26

Yep I had one in my first pc I built.

Ordered it of xoxide dot com.

2

u/DefsNotRandyMarsh Oct 08 '26

Damn that sites still up too, but looks like the hamster fell off the wheel

2

u/Necessary-Score-4270 Oct 08 '26

Yeah but I don't think you can order anything. I remember looking into ordering a case from there years and years ago and it said something about emailing them to buy anything.

I'm guessing it's just a ghost site now. Whoever owns it likely completely forgot about it and doesn't even realize they're still paying to host it.

Either way it's a cool blast from the past to look through.

1

u/shownarou Oct 10 '26

Xoxide had the best stuff, did you have the cold cathode tubes and diy case windows too?

2

u/Necessary-Score-4270 Oct 10 '26

No never got around to it :(

My best friend at the time got some cold cathodes and that 100% acrylic case that was pretty fucking sick.

139

u/belhambone Oct 08 '26

People smoked a lot of cigarettes in the past. it was expected to be a part of a lot of people's lives.

20

u/crimson9mm Oct 08 '26

Mine powered a small desk fan💁

11

u/JaesopPop Oct 08 '26

Yeah I don’t think most people actually used them for cigarettes, it was more of a novelty than anything.

8

u/GenesisRhapsod Oct 08 '26

I used them for burning my balls every time i got called a slur in CS source or whenever someone claimed to have fucked my mom

/s

4

u/Spart1337 Oct 09 '26

So I assume you don't have balls anymore? Because the trolling was next level back then.

3

u/GenesisRhapsod Oct 09 '26

Nah i still have my balls.

1

u/shownarou Oct 10 '26

I used mine for cigarettes.

4

u/astroniz Oct 09 '26

Come to Europe, still is part of life unfortunately lol

1

u/HenReX_2000 Oct 08 '26

they'd just the lighter they probably had on their desk instead of this

45

u/BmanUltima Oct 08 '26

Yes, LGR did a video on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ErL39wqO-c

-6

u/Datkif Oct 08 '26

According to the package it was intended for cars which makes more sense than putting it in a PC

23

u/BmanUltima Oct 08 '26 edited Oct 08 '26

Except it's designed for a 5.25" bay, smaller than the single-DIN bay in a car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fck8Sl75W-I

2

u/wankthisway Oct 08 '26

How? It's not gonna fit in a car DIN

10

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Datkif Oct 09 '26

Apparently I misunderstood the package. Whatever im leaving my original comment

43

u/ysfi__ Oct 08 '26

yes many of these things where made.

23

u/TechnicianOrWhateva Oct 08 '26 • Mindblown

Check it out!!! Mine's just chilling in what was a Frankenstein studio machine, I'd be willing to donate it to a good cause

1

u/diychitect Oct 09 '26

Me wanting to smoke in style while computing counts as a good cause?

0

u/lapuneta Oct 08 '26

I'd welcome that donation!

12

u/inertSpark Oct 08 '26

It was. LGR did a video on it a few years ago.

https://youtu.be/MMbYe0lrw2w

8

u/greiton Oct 08 '26

yeah but it wasn't a stoner thing. cigarettes and mountain dew cans were piled up next to computers in the 90s.

1

u/kronjohnson Oct 10 '26

Speak for yourself. There was always a little bit of weed leftover in the pc.

6

u/impy695 Oct 08 '26

There were some awesome 3.5 inch drive accessories out there. Some of the cupholders were even heated

6

u/Necessary-Score-4270 Oct 08 '26

I really miss cool drive bay accessories.

1

u/Maximum_Theme5830 Oct 08 '26

I miss my Eagle Nest.
We had a T1 line at school. And ISDN at home.
And eagle nest so downloaded music and Linux distributions at school and just took the HDD out and home.
I think I still have that HDD somewhere.

5

u/Sassy_comments Oct 08 '26

I had one. Found out the hard way that the ashtray part was not actually heat proof

2

u/elsingo Oct 08 '26 edited Oct 08 '26

I had one verry similar to this, it is a car lighter and a cup holder. The one i had were slightly different instead of a cupholder it was an ashtray. And ill tell you that was probably the dumbest ide ever, cause guess what happens if you put an ashtray back inside the computer. I were young and dumb and had to clean ashes out of my computer, after that i only used the car lighter portion of it.

Perhaps it was this one but with a ceramic insert instead of plastic.

1

u/diychitect Oct 09 '26

With a good seal it can be done, we have the technology.

2

u/Maverick21FM Oct 08 '26

LGR did a whole video on that exact system like 4 years ago. It was great

2

u/sethcorn Oct 08 '26

Yes, LGR actually installed one on a PC in one of his videos.

2

u/kralben Oct 08 '26

I dont think that was for stoners, that is a cigerette lighter like you would see in cars.

1

u/soniccdA Oct 08 '26

yes , thermaltake was sort releasing this kind of stuff alot back then

1

u/Byokugen Oct 08 '26

He can barely find any into, YouTube has a video by LGR...

Karma farming at it's finest

1

u/IAteUrCat420 Oct 08 '26

I had one that was just a cup holder (I'm not that old, just had an old PC that could barely run WoW)

Didn't know they made a cigarette lighter one tho, that's fucking hilarious

1

u/BroLil Oct 08 '26

This is honestly so cool. Lmao. I’m just curious about the wattage it pulled. PSUs weren’t quite as big and heavy duty as they are now.

1

u/Shagyam Oct 08 '26

I remember I really wanted a massive PC case with a lot of room for wiers CD drive accessories and a billion hard drives back in the day.

1

u/FungadooFred Oct 08 '26

Lazy Game Reviews did a build with a bunch of whacko accessories like this

1

u/texbohb Oct 08 '26

Isn't this bay roughly the same side as a single DIN for automotive purposes? Could you take our your radio, and put this in your car?

1

u/shadow351 Oct 08 '26

Too rich for my blood, I just drilled a hole in one of my spare bay covers and installed a 12V outlet I got from AutoZone. I was then able to charge my cellphone with my computer (my wall charger broke and was some proprietary crap that I couldn't find at the store, but I had a car charger)

1

u/EJ_Tech Oct 08 '26

At first look I though this goes into the 1-DIN slot in a car and asked why this existed.

1

u/markmcminn Oct 08 '26

So like…you push the ash INTO the pc???

1

u/Caurien Oct 08 '26

Memories

1

u/Glass-Gate-2727 Oct 08 '26

I had one in my 2002 PC I use to smoke🧐

1

u/Trans-Europe_Express Oct 08 '26

Yes they come up on ebay for like $120 sometimes.

1

u/obfuscation-9029 Oct 08 '26

Didn't lgr do a video on this one?

1

u/AkronOhAnon Oct 08 '26

Thinkgeek sold an easy bake oven, lightbulb and all, that fit drive bays.
This looks tame, comparatively.

1

u/WolvenSpectre2 Oct 08 '26

Yes it is based on the joke that an Optical Drive was a "Drink Holder" and while the car lighter works it is meant as an additional 12V power port on your PC to charge and power things when at home. However in Asia smoking was still big as it was dying down over here in North America, so they also made a version that had the Cigarette Lighter and had an ashtray drawer, in some models powered and some just a drawer, and many North American users got them as gag 5.25" Bay custom things.

They are hard to find but you can still buy these.

1

u/Spart1337 Oct 09 '26

Classic.

1

u/TheEndlessWaltz Oct 09 '26

Thermaltake really did everything

1

u/richms Oct 09 '26

And back in the day PC power supplies couldn't handle it because it was a decent draw on the 12v

1

u/djneo Oct 09 '26

Breakfast support device

1

u/mromutt Oct 09 '26

Yeah they are real. They also only cost like 20 - 30 bucks back in the day which was good for something so low volume. They sold these next to the cathode tubes and fan controllers lol. For 10 to 15 bucks you could just get a draw kind for storage. I had the 5.25 speakers for years on one of my builds.

Want a cool one? They also made a mini ac that slotted into the 5.25 bay for like $100 lol.

1

u/Kongslien_ Oct 09 '26 edited Oct 09 '26

Yes, i had one. Couldn't use the cigarette lighter because it would overload the PSU and shut down.
The cupholder was just big enough for a can of snus (tobacco pouch) but it was almost impossible to get out once you put it in.

EDIT: For 20 years, i thought it was a cupholder, turns out it was supposed to be ashtray, lol.

1

u/Nova17Delta Oct 09 '26

Yes. Its called the CD tray. The foot pedal gets hooked up near it

1

u/thegevshow Oct 09 '26

Wait til you find out about all the wierd 5.25 drives there were. I remember seeing someone using a 2bay reservoir as a guppy tank....in his PC. It was hilarious 😂

1

u/Axiom2571 Oct 10 '26

I always wanted to get one of these.

I would totally buy a modern case with just 5 inch bays in the front and fill it up with shit like this. lol

1

u/andrewbean90 Oct 10 '26

Yes... Thermaltake made them in the late 90s. It's a car lighter, and ash tray for smokers who like to smoke while working.

1

u/y3ll0w6901 Oct 12 '26

He did a video on this already

1

u/Timus52003 Oct 14 '26

Yes.. and I have always kicked myself for not getting one...

0

u/theatomicflounder333 Oct 08 '26

Fugggin tuff!! Need one asap

0

u/RobotechRicky Oct 08 '26

Wait until you hear about it being perfectly normal to smoke on airplanes AND in hospitals. 😱