ASRock has a new accessory in the form of an IPS panel kit that could be mounted on the side panel of your PC case for a price of $150 US.
ASRock 13.3" Side Panel Kit Will Give You A Secondary IPS Panel On Your PC Cases' Side Panel
The ASRock Side Panel Kit is straightforward, it is a 13.3" IPS display which comes with a 16:9 ratio, a viewing angle of 293.76 x 165.24 (H x V), an Anti-Glare LED with a maximum brightness of 300 cd per m2, & a contrast ratio of 800:1. It can display up to 16.7 Million colors (8-bit) and features a 60 Hz refresh rate. Most importantly, the screen comes with an FHD resolution of 1920x1080p.
As for its purpose, the ASRock Side-Panel Kit makes sense for PC setups that lack the space for an extra monitor but having 13.3" worth of real estate attached to your side panel would mean that you won't be able to show off your cool hardware or RGB LEDs from the inside of the case. While this is only a factor for gamers, they may as well use the screen as a secondary monitor. But then, you have to move your head sideways all the time to see what's going on on the other screen. For productivity users with limited space, they can have certain applications opened up on the second screen.
ASRock supplements their Side-Panel Kit with an eDP cable, 2 extra long brackets, 2 short brackets, extra double-sided tape strips, and 5 cable clips to make sure the panel is attached well to the case and the cables are easy to manage without making clutter. There are only a few motherboards out there that feature an eDP connector as the ones compiled by Tomshardware below (no eDP to DP connectors exist to date):
- Z790 LiveMixer
- Z790 Pro RS/D4
- Z790M-ITX WiFi
- Z790 Steel Legend WiFi
- Z790 PG Lightning
- Z790 Pro R
- Z790 PG Lightning/D4
- H610M-ITX/eDP
- B650E PG-ITX WiFi
Amazon has currently listed the ASRock Side-Panel kit for a price of £118.81 and it is also available in the Asian markets for around 1000 RMB which converts to around $150 US. This is a slightly high price as I was expecting $100 US for the kit but I guess it will be a decent option for users that lack the space for a proper secondary monitor.
