Five Last-Minute Stocking Filler Ideas for under R350
I tried to get an AI to recommend Christmas stocking fillers for R350 or less, but it was awful. Here's a much better list instead.
Stocking fillers are meant to be small, cheap, sometimes useful or edible items. I tried to get an AI to understand that and it ended up recommending a trio of very expensive Corsair ARGB fans for R1499 despite saying, in brackets after the recommendation, “may be over budget”.
At least Humans understand what stocking fillers are, so here’s five of them that a real human recommends.
Logitech G102 Wired Mouse
Logitech makes a lot of great kit, and one of their best sellers also happens to be one of the cheapest RGB mouses on the market that support their G-Hub utility. The G102 has been through several upgrades, the latest which got the weight down to around 85 grams, improved the ergonomics of the wheel and buttons, and added LIGHTSYNC support.
Ed's Note: Yes, it is "mouses" and not "mice". Fight in the comments if you disagree.
The G102 supports remapping the buttons, adding macro commands, customizing the RGB lighting, granular 100 DPI setting increments for the optical sensor, and offers per-game profiles with settings that you can sync to Logitech’s cloud if you so choose.
Just the essentials are included in the physical hardware – you have left and right primary triggers, a middle click button, two thumb buttons, and a DPI cycle button which can be remapped. A basic 8000DPI optical sensor rounds out the package.
The G102 is great stocking filler for the gamer in your life that just needs something reliable and cheap, and R349 is within budget!
DeepCool SC790 6-Port ARGB & PWM Fan Hub
Managing fan lighting and PWM profiles is a pain in the butt on some motherboards. You don’t always get controls to sync up fans to run at the speeds you want, and some of the PWM headers are in a really inconvenient spot if you want clean cable runs. A hub is great for this sort of thing, especially a simple one like this.
DeepCool’s SC790 has six 3-Pin 5V ARGB and six 4-Pin PWM fan headers, and your motherboard does all the controlling from a single header for each. If you have matching fans, the primary one is used to repeat the same PWM and ARGB signals to the others.
In practice, this means that your fans all run at the same speed with the same lighting pattern. If you have more expensive fans that offer per-LED controls you may want to look elsewhere, but for everyone else who may want static or single-colour effects and themes, this is a great pick.
The SC790 is compatible with Gigabyte RGB Fusion, ASUS Aura, MSI Mystic Light, and ASRock Polychrome Sync ARGB software controls.
Antec Shape Prism GPU Stand
Why did the GPU go to therapy? Because it couldn’t handle the weight of its own expectations! Graphics cards are getting thicc and heavy, and all signs point to case manufacturers getting ready for monster 4-slot and 5-slot cards coming from NVIDIA and AMD in the future. These behemoths aren’t going to stand straight by themselves, so they’ll need a little help.
The Shape Prism is a popular seller on our store, and it is a very simple design. The stand has non-slip rubber on the bottom, with magnets in the base to secure it to the chassis. The top of the stand also has a layer of rubber to protect the GPU, and the whole thing is made of sturdy steel and aluminium.
Twist the little knob, and a screw releases to allow the stand to rise to any height you need, from 63.5mm to as high as 100mm. It is a stylish fix to GPU sag that works in almost any chassis, and comes in black or white. Grab one for your stocking today!
Hiksemi Dual Slim 128GB USB Flash Drive
The nerd in your life loves a great gadget. With the proliferation of USB Type-C ports on newer laptops and desktops, you might want to keep something around that also connects to legacy Type-A ports, especially because sharing things across a network of Windows computers is not as simple as Microsoft would have you believe.
Hiksemi’s Dual Slim 128GB Flash Drive is just one such gadget. On opposing ends of the drive there is a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A and a Type-C port, both which can hit read speeds of up to 130MB/s. A handy eyelet allows you to attach it to a lanyard or keys or a carabiner hook.
You don’t have to lug that external hard drive around anymore just to transfer your "Linux ISOs" between computers or friends - just use one of these instead.
Redragon METEOR M Keyboard Wrist Rest
Wrist rests are a divisive topic in enthusiast keyboard circles. Depending on the typing position and how one uses a computer, you or someone you know may benefit from using one.
A good wrist rest is designed to support your palm when your hands are placed in position to type on a keyboard. While wrist rests and ergonomic keyboards don't prevent the incidence of carpal tunnel strain on the wrists, according to research by UC Berkely, most designs are intended as strain relief to avoid fatigue as most people in desk jobs spend about 20 hours a week typing.
Wrist rests come in all sorts of materials and profiles, and this 60% one from Redragon is made of memory foam with a PU Leatherette covering. It offers medium levels of support for extended typing or gaming sessions, and is a good starting point for someone who’s never used a wrist rest before. It’ll fit in the stocking too!
