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Unhooking the spaghetti of wires behind a PC is never a job to be taken lightly and its odds on you always find a lead going nowhere. Turning devices on singlely is perhaps a fall back to times when if a peripheral device was not turned on when the PC started then it would not work. USB has stopped that and so a device can be turned on when required. Mind you finding a spare socket to plug it into is not that easy.

Long ago I decided a gang socket was essential. A quick tally said four might do but this soon had a two way adapter so a six socket was acquired. Then companies like Belkin started bringing out surge strips – up to eight sockets – this not only gave you all the sockets you needed but also covered minor blips in the electricity supply and even protected things from the disaster of lightning strikes.

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The Pure AV is not primarily designed for computers but it has kept both my PC’s happy for some time. The packaging says for Home Cinema Systems, Digital Satellite Systems, Audio/Video, ADSL/Broadband Applications and more. It also comes with wall mounting screws to help with neatness, but do check the wall can take the weight.

Not only do you get six sockets that according to the blurb can protect for up to 103,500 amps spike current, this I am told is 3762 joules all I know is I don’t want to be there with such large amounts of electricity or my hair –such as it is – will have a decided Gary Rhodes look.

The block is 33x16x6cm, the on/off switch is the 3metre cable end and the six 13amp sockets are slightly staggered to allow for some of the blocks that power various bits of external equipment. Both sets of three sockets have the earth in the centre but with some blocks being so oversize I would have preferred all the sockets to be mounted one way and thus ensuring all six can be used. However you can also protect standard TV aerial and also satellite systems as well as telephones by using the in/out sockets on the far end of the unit.

Lots of people make surge strips, for a lot less than this, and while Belkin make far cheaper units than this top of the range unit they offer a free lifetime unlimited warrantee and reading some of the small print this does seem to say that if your products correctly connected to a Belkin surge protector (Isolator) are damaged they will cough up for whatever your loss is. I must admit I have not heard of any cases but maybe that is simply because their products do their job.

This particular product is supplied with three leads one for aerial, one for phone and a gold coaxial all 1.8 metre in length. The price at Dabs is around £88.

Link : http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=1&Product_Id=159505