Holiday Gifts 2021

MOCA adapters are a godsend if you’re not wealthy enough to get a house, but still want wired internet speeds throughout your apartment. These adapters convert your modem signal to run through coax, and wherever there is coax hooked into the same split connectors you can hook these in and get wired speeds. Absolutely phenomenal magic. They have to be bought in pairs for the first set, but once you get one at the modem, you can have any number elsewhere in your apartment or home. These run at about $150 and require you to have access to where your cable connection comes in. Reddit helped me a lot when first setting these up. 

Drive bays are a great way to run with multiple hard drives and not have to swap from your case directly. Say you have a lot of Steam games you’re unwilling to delete or you have a bunch of movies, but you’re tired of external drives running up in price. If you’re this type of lazy/conservative with money, a drive bay hooks in through you’re USB and takes normal HDD’s, and allows you to just run them after you plug them into the dock. Some allow multiple drives and copying/RAID striping. Very cool and convenient.

UPS’s are something that will save you heartbreak down the line that are surprisingly cheap. Granted, more industrial models run a hefty price (the one pictured is only $60), but anything that goes down during a power outage will be protected and powered on for as long as the internal battery holds charge. These will save the day during a power ousage if your phone is ever low on battery. UPS’s filter out dirty power and absorb power surges unlike how some power strips advertise. Looking at the wattage of what you plan on having plugged in is important to finding one that’s fits your needs, most residential based run from $60-$200, but could end up saving your computer from getting fried. 

These are just some ideas for anyone uwhose wanting some cheap but added convenience when it comes to using computers/consoles/networking. Outside of that, what are you guys wanting for the holidays?