Monster PC700

Blurring the thin line between geek-ness and nerd-dom, I bought a Monster PC700 power bar today. Not because my POS computer requires such lavish hyperbolic protection... But rather for reasons simpler than that: the price was right.

Simply put, I found it on the shelf at The Source (aka: Circuit City) at a ridiculous half-price. Yes, twenty-five bucks IS HALF-PRICE. If you're not in the know, that's because aside from setting the industry standard for mid-range home-theatre cabling, Monster is also dabbles in over-priced solutions for power protection. They have a whole line of this sort of stuff. Just walk into your local Futurecrap store and you'll find a really gimmicky demo station with what looks like an oscilloscope read-out that shows the stability of the electric current with and without a Monster product in it...

But aside from the questionable legitimacy of Monster's claims or the rationale a sales guy will try to give you for paying out the nose for a freaking power-bar, I will give Monster credit for some of their design choices. Besides making good solid cables, they do produce a pretty cool power-bar.

For their power bars, the plug is a handy round affair that is angled so it won't interfere with other plug you may want to have in the same 2-outlet wall-jack. The main toggle is positioned safely on top where an errant toe won't kick it accidentally (if you happen to be me at a certain LAN party). Plus, on the off chance you have a few plugs for devices which have their transformers built into the plugs making them fat, Monster also provides a few outlets with extra space around them too. Do you have one of those all-in-one FAX printers? Well, that's now protected too as there's a pass-thru for the phone line on this baby as well.

Monster products don't go on sale too often. In fact, they pretty much NEVER go on sale directly from Monster and usually it's the retailer taking a hit (I've been told in the past that Monster has very strict pricing policies on their products). So if you're in need of a power-bar to replace that crappy one you bought in the 80's, welcome to the 21th century.