Corsair’s PC-dockable screen helped me monitor my PC components and news feeds

Corsair's Xeneon Edge is the best at what it does but is software-dependent.

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[poochyena]

I can maybe see it having some niche, but that 3rd image is particularly is really not showing it. The windows taskbar already shows weather, time, date, and music.
For something like email monitoring, I'd think just your phone or a tablet would do that just fine? Its hard finding a useful niche for this screen I think.

 

[isage]

This seems like an expensive alternative for conky.

 

[Geebs]

I can maybe see it having some niche, but that 3rd image is particularly is really not showing it. The windows taskbar already shows weather, time, date, and music.
For something like email monitoring, I'd think just your phone or a tablet would do that just fine? Its hard finding a useful niche for this screen I think.

The niche is “people who are really into building their own PC but also so insecure about their ability to apply thermal paste that they want a second-by-second readout of their CPU temperature visible at all times”.

 

[obarthelemy]

just get a second monitor ?

 

[obarthelemy]

Corsair has been taken over by private erquity. Hasn't it been enshittified yet ?

edit: maybe...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqm4V-8F-7k

 

[cadence]

Can it display sidebar gadgets? Or more broadly, can you just run anything on it as if it was a regular secondary display? The article mostly focused on the proprietary software, and I’m not sure if there are any limitations on what can run there.

 

[Abcommenter]

The niche is “people who are really into building their own PC but also so insecure about their ability to apply thermal paste that they want a second-by-second readout of their CPU temperature visible at all times”.

I mean.... yeah. I feel like this is me since I just built my first one. However, I would actually use this for other purposes such as work calendar, schedule, to do, etc. However... an iPad would work for that.

 

[85mm]

A screen of that type might be fun for a home assistant control panel.

 

[Myritek]

These types of things really appeal to the kid inside me, even though I acknowledge very freely I don't need it. I mean hell, I'm typing this from a three monitor setup (two landscape, one portrait) that itself could be called excessive at least 75% of the time. But even so, I can't escape the childlike excitement at the idea of having a little touchscreen with fun widgets monitoring different things. In the 00s, I exercised this by spending dozens upon dozens of hours configuring elaborate Rainmeter skins and widgets... which I wouldn't see 99% of the time I was actually on the computer, since it all went on the desktop and would very quickly be covered up by whatever browser or other software I had sat down to use.

$250 is too much to drop on a toy anyways, but even if I could, I don't think I would wanna pull the trigger on this. Based on past experience trying to wrangle odd-sized monitors on Windows I'm guessing there's very little value in this screen outside of Corsair's custom software. And in my experience, iCUE (like pretty much all software offerings from similar PC hardware manufacturers) is full of tons of little frustrations--not to mention rather bloated.

 

[Resolute]

The niche is “people who are really into building their own PC but also so insecure about their ability to apply thermal paste that they want a second-by-second readout of their CPU temperature visible at all times”.

I can see lots of fairly interesting little niches for a device like this. But I don't see it as a serious case for a productivity screen.

Home media centre display seems to be one Corsair thinks will be popular.

I have a Raspberry Pi that runs a baseball or hockey scoreboard on an LED output. A screen like this as a ticker scroller for sports, stocks, etc. Your own private text crawl.

I wonder if you could connect this to a Home Assistant system as a touch interface for that?

Etc.

I can think of lots of things that I could do with this. But none that are worth c$350 to me.

 

[fellow human]

A screen of that type might be fun for a home assistant control panel.

yeah! But then touch would be pretty ideal for that so an old iPad is probably still better. edit: oops, missed that it actually is a touchscreen

For a long time I’ve had an idea that would involve a car dashboard-mounted screen and this would be ideal for that. In fact I wonder if this form factor becoming more common in cars is why we’re seeing these in the consumer market now.

 

[Verio]

The niche is “people who are really into building their own PC but also so insecure about their ability to apply thermal paste that they want a second-by-second readout of their CPU temperature visible at all times”.

This is a silly take. The niche is "people who like system monitoring" which is also "people who like data and insight" which has a huge amount of venn diagram overlap for the kind of people reading this website, or doing system building etc.

On that note, I've been using the same MIMO 7" USB monitor for years, with rainmeter, and love it.

 

[qchronod]

I have one of those generic 2560x720 monitors. It was only ~$130 2 years ago with standard VESA mount and HDMI or USB-C DP input. It sits just below my ultrawide monitor and I use it to keep stuff like Voicemeeter, Discord, Steam friends list, and some Rainmeter gauges for things like cpu/gpu temp.

Edit: @fellow human the one that I bought also has some small mounting flanges on the sides which could be used for mounting to a recessed cutout.

 

[HiroTheProtagonist]

My main use for something like this would be akin to a corkboard where I can keep my digital sticky notes at work. I tried doing this with a WiseCoco display a few years ago, but the single biggest issue was that Windows kept resizing and shifting my notes around on startup, so I'd have to spend the first ten minutes of every day re-wrangling the notes, then again if I ever needed to un-dock my laptop. So while I like the idea of these kinds of displays, their biggest stumbling block for me tends to be petulant OSes messing with my layouts.

 

[Aelix]

This one is better than most of the no-name brands on Amazon simply because the ports are behind the screen. Most put them right on the outer edge so you have these ugly cables hanging off the side.

I’m still hoping they make a version that is 24” so it’s the full width under my monitor. Would be perfect for the various terminals I always keep open with SSH/top etc. update I guess these do kind of exist. Search Amazon for 24” supermarket shelf monitor. For some reason they are chonky and super low resolution 1920x360. Alternatively, two of these side-by-side would work for the same price as the Corsair.

 

[AusPeter]

What OS is supported by this device? Through multiple mentions of “PC” I believe that it implies “Windows only”, but I can’t see that it’s ever stated (or I’m just blind).

 

[olePigeon]

I've often thought about getting one of these thin ultrawide displays and flip it vertical for no other reason than to have it scroll through random BBS ANSI art screens. Pure nostalgia.

 

[neodorian]

Seems interesting enough I guess. As someone with Corsair fans/controllers already, the dependence on iCue isn't exactly a selling point. For something that controls fans and LEDs, that application uses an incredible amount of resources while running in the background. It frequently crashes when my computer is under heavy load (rendering 3d graphics, etc.) and it's always a roll of the dice whether a version update will require deleting and rebuilding any fan/LED profiles I'd saved.

Widgets like this seem like a perfect use for the ultrawide monitors that have become common. With so much horizontal real estate, there's plenty of room for a vertical bar on one side or the other. Plus then you hide it and reclaim that space depending on what you're doing.

 

[saanaito]

I could see myself setting it up in a portrait orientation to thumb through long PDF documents, like a service manual or a DnD PHB. Or Ars comment threads.

Could also attach it to a Linux system and put a terminal window on it, with tmux dividing the area. I ssh into my other devices for maintenance tasks fairly often.

Or I could replace my army of temporary text files with a sticky note app that I dedicated the screen to.

None of these ideas would put the touch functionality to much use, but oh well.

 

[gosand]

This seems like an expensive alternative for conky.

I still use gkrellm, and have for many many years. It's on the far right monitor in my 3-monitor setup.

EDIT: image isn't displaying when I click, so here is a link: https://i.imgur.com/4rVhlok.jpeg

 

[markgo]

If the point is widgets, an iPad mini or other small tablet is probably going to work much better and faster. There are apps (iStat) that will let you monitor another computer’s temperature even. No fan mount though.

 

[saltyfrog]

I could see this as a visual accessibility aid.
Having a 2nd monitor which is tracking my cursor, showing an enhanced or zoomed image where my cursor is, could be useful as vision degrades.

I've got a while though. Maybe a year or two.

 

[sfbiker]

I thought this might be interesting for traveling -- a super lightweight and compact second monitor. Then I saw the weight -- at 3.69 lbs it weighs more than my entire 15" laptop.

 

[ChefJeff789]

All you need to know is that it uses iCUE. Hell no.

 

[Boskone]

I thought this might be interesting for traveling -- a super lightweight and compact second monitor. Then I saw the weight -- at 3.69 lbs it weighs more than my entire 15" laptop.

And you could just get a USB-C monitor that's not a weird format. Mine is 18", but there's a host of other sizes.

 

[josephhansen]

It's worth noting it's nearly impossible to uninstall iCUE. You have to dig deep into hidden system folders to get everything, and if you miss a single file, the whole thing reinstalls itself silently. It's absolutely a virus and should be treated as such, it's disgraceful that Corsair gets away with it

 

[Dposcorp]

I grabbed two of these at a price of $20 shipped each.

Get em before they are gone:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/803276084-USE/poly_2200_87100_001_studio_p21_21_5_16_9.html

 

[rjsmith2007]

In vertical orientation, this secondary monitor would be nice for twitch chat.

 

[Matthew J.]

So it's not a Xeon but a Xeneon... that's some super-distinct branding right there.

 

[MrMorden]

What OS is supported by this device? Through multiple mentions of “PC” I believe that it implies “Windows only”, but I can’t see that it’s ever stated (or I’m just blind).

Based on the article it appears to be just another display if you don't have the iCUE software loaded. Haiku, RISC OS, whatever.

 

[RecycledHandle]

That just feels like just some more e-waste looking for a problem to solve.

I’m trying to be more mindful of the dust collectors I’m bringing home, hard pass on this one.

 

[TheFLP]

I've been looking at things like this, and even have an immediate use case. Just not sure $250 is reasonable, and touch capability on Macs is questionable. A less expensive non-touch model would be more appealing.

 

[F12]

"But if you want one that looks good, is built well, and is easily customizable, you won't find those qualities in a budget screen from a no-name brand on Amazon."

Wrong. What monitors doesn't look good? You can certainly customize it more than this thing because you can put whatever you want on it because it's windows.

 

[TheFLP]

Wrong. What monitors doesn't look good? You can certainly customize it more than this thing because you can put whatever you want on it because it's windows.

"Looks good" means a high quality display to me, not how nice the case looks.

 

[AusPeter]

Based on the article it appears to be just another display if you don't have the iCUE software loaded. Haiku, RISC OS, whatever.

I know a screen is a screen is a screen, but what OS is iCUE supported on? It's really fundamental to the whole article.

 

[TheFLP]

I know a screen is a screen is a screen, but what OS is iCUE supported on? It's really fundamental to the whole article.

I had to dig around the web site to find it, but this page says iCUE is Windows only:

- Windows 11 (Full iCUE Support and Monitor Mode) - MacOS (iCUE Unsupported - Monitor Mode Only)

 

[TheFLP]

More from the Quickstart guide:

Can I use the XENEON EDGE LCD Touchscreen as a monitor without iCUE?

While it's possible to use the device without iCUE, the software offers unique customization options such as touch calibration and display adjustments that aren't available through Windows. For the best experience, we recommend using iCUE.

And elsewhere they mention that there are no hardware buttons for controlling brightness etc. So unless it supports DDC for control with third party software, you're limited to whatever display settings the OS supports — which in the case of macOS is nothing at all.

 

[Me Myself And I1]

I have a 5120x1440 curved Philips display attached to a M1 MacBook Air. Mac sits on my left hand side on a small stand and its screen plays the role of this corsair screen.

I can imagine using Corsair for Slack conversations but for that it'd have to be taller...

 

[eldudarino]

I still use gkrellm, and have for many many years. It's on the far right monitor in my 3-monitor setup.
View attachment 116684

EDIT: image isn't displaying when I click, so here is a link: https://i.imgur.com/4rVhlok.jpeg

I can't help but think KDE widgets would be another great Linux-based use for this. Haven't heard of glrellm though, thanks for the info.

I've considered back and forth getting some aliexpress monitor like this, but honestly I think a vertical monitor on the side would be more useful. I've been wanting to get an LG DualUp or something (cheap marketplace 21" IPS likely) for Discord instead, since I'd probably use that a lot more often.