Power Bricks and Cable Spaghetti
I'm sure many people have this problem: a plethora of devices that do their jobs well, look great and yet create a pile of spaghetti with their cables and a headache for power strips with their bricks. It is certainly amazing that with all the technological advances that have been made over the years in the devices themselves and the connections between the devices, that so little (none?) attention has been place on the rear end: the power.
Though this isn't a power issue, Apple, with its strive towards minimalism, isn't helping the cable matter with its 2 meter Thunderbolt cable. If you want two Thunderbolt devices on a shelf, you have to buy a 2 meter cable to connect them, even though a cable of 30 cm would do the job, take less space, and look better. But that is a cable, and Apple may soon rectify this missed design opportunity.
Back to the bricks and spaghetti.
I have a shelf beside my desk at work where I keep all of my hard drives and Blu-Ray burner. As I only have but so many outlets in the room and I want to reduce clutter, I want a power strip on the same shelf, with switches to completely turn off devices easily when not in use. That's where I run into problems: meter after meter of DC cable and power bricks of various sizes that don't fit neatly into a power strip, necessitating another strip or adapter wires. The power bricks also fit clumsily on the strip, so that their cables get twisted or the strip's switches are hard to access. The bricks get warm and therefore need air circulation. Radio interference is also a concern.
Has anyone found a good power strip or have any good ideas? DIY projects?
Why can't a manufacturer provide (at extra cost is OK by me) a special brick set that is designed to take little space? What I'm thinking is sort of like a USB hub: one brick with multiple outlets that can then be attached to their devices using short wires. I'm tempted to get a larger RAID set that only needs a single cable for four or six drives, but they make more noise than their smaller brothers and sisters.
Comments
http://www.powersquid.com/
Not bad, but I'm looking for something that has switches to easily turn things off completely. I currently have a DIY set-up about the same, using a standard surge bar with short extenders (20cm or so) on the power bricks. Not Ideal as the bricks are still flopping all over and the wires are bent and twisted.
Searching around, I found Belkin makes a sturdy looking thing, but it looks like it will take up too much space.
I'm almost tempted to ask an electrician to set up some more outlets in the office behind the shelves, but that will be a pretty penny and would limit any future rearranging.