Tower of power
02/20/2003
Computer Corner is a weekly video report
examining the latest trends in technology. Helpful links are listed. Walt Zwirko reports from Dallas.
Whether you pay $200 or $2,000 for a PC, you'll have to plug things in to it to make it work.
After taking care of the power cord, keyboard, mouse and monitor, there are printers, cable modems,
DSL modems, cameras and scanners.
And that leaves a tangled jumble of cables.
An informal survey of the scene underneath some desks in one major metropolitan newsroom reveals a
nightmarish rat's nest clogged with power strips, power supply "bricks" and wiring of every
color and dimension.
What a mess!
While there is no perfect solution, the GoldX PowerCore System promises to bring order to this chaos while
conserving desk space.
The half-moon shaped PowerCore ($39.99) is sort of a super power strip, configurable to your
particular needs. The standard model has a heavy-duty grounded power cable and provides four
surge-protected AC outlets on the rear panel.
A separate kit of snap-in modules is available to upgrade the standard surge protection from 555
Joules to 1110 or 1665 Joules and to provide optional protection for cable modems, phone lines or a
local area network (there's room for two of the three options).
Let's say you have a notebook computer you use in your home office. Pry the decorative cap from the
top of the PowerCore unit and drop a USB Port Replicator ($69.99) on top. It gets its power from the
base unit, eliminating the need for a power brick and power cord. The port replicator has connectors
for a mouse, keyboard, printer and modem.
You can add to the PowerCore system's utility by adding other available devices, including a 5-port
Ethernet switch ($49.99), a USB broadband adapter ($29.99) and a 3-port FireWire hub ($39.99)
PowerCore is an interesting and elegant way to manage a real problem for computer users. GoldX
products are available in Texas from Altex Electronics and online
at Tiger Direct.
Seattle
