Why a Small Touchscreen Below Your Main Monitor Is a Game-Changer
This is one of those setups that, once you build it, you wonder why you didn’t do it years ago.
A small, wide touchscreen mounted just below your primary display is insanely useful—especially if you game, stream, or live in tools like Discord all day. Instead of alt-tabbing or overlaying junk on your main screen, you just glance down. Who’s talking. What music is playing. CPU temps. Mute a mic. Switch a Discord channel. All without breaking immersion.
That idea originally clicked for me after seeing what Corsair had been experimenting with. Their concept looked slick—but the price made me stop and ask a simple question:
Can I do this cheaper, simpler, and still make it solid enough for daily use?
Turns out—yes.
First Attempt: The “Almost” Solution
My first try was a touchscreen panel from GeekPi. On paper, it checked the boxes: small, touch-enabled, affordable.
In practice? Not quite.
- No proper back housing
- Multiple cables for power, video, and touch
- Felt fragile and unfinished
- Not something I trusted to survive day-to-day desk life
It worked, but it felt like a prototype—not a real desktop component. I wanted something more robust, cleaner, and less annoying to deal with.
The Upgrade That Nailed It: MaxFree L2
That’s when I landed on the MaxFree L2 touchscreen monitor.
This thing hits the sweet spot:
- 13-inch widescreen
- 1080p resolution
- 10-point capacitive touch
- Fully enclosed and durable
- Portable monitor form factor
- USB-C capable of video, power, and touch
In theory, a single USB-C cable can handle everything. In practice—this depends on your GPU and motherboard.
Cable Reality Check (and the Fix)
On my setup, trying to push power + video + touch over one USB-C port caused intermittent issues. Nothing catastrophic—but annoying.
The fix was simple and rock solid:
- USB-C → power + touch data
- Micro-HDMI → video directly to the GPU
Once I split it that way, all problems disappeared. Stable image, reliable touch, no random disconnects.
Quick Windows Touch Fix (If It Happens to You)
If Windows ever maps touch input to the wrong screen (which can happen when splitting connections):
- Open Tablet PC Settings
- Use “Setup” under Display
- Tap the screen Windows asks for
Done. Takes 30 seconds. Not a real issue—just something to know.
What Actually Lives on This Screen?
This is where the setup really shines.
- Discord (perfect size for voice channels and who’s talking)
- Music controls
- Monitoring dashboards
- Quick mute buttons
- Virtual Stream Deck buttons
- Rainmeter widgets (CPU temp, system stats, audio visualizers)
One of my favorite touches is a small audio visualizer that bounces when sound is playing—music, voice, anything. At a glance, you know something’s happening without hearing it.
It becomes a status panel, not just another screen.
Better Than a Stream Deck? Honestly… Yeah.
I own a Elgato Stream Deck XL—and it’s great. But here’s the blunt truth:
I use this touchscreen more.
Why?
- Bigger surface
- Visual context (not just icons)
- Touch feels natural
- Multiple apps at once
- Zero mental friction
It’s not replacing the Stream Deck—but it absolutely outperforms it for day-to-day interaction.
Final Verdict
If you:
- Game regularly
- Use Discord constantly
- Monitor system stats
- Stream or record
- Hate alt-tabbing
- Want control without overlays
A small touchscreen below your main display is one of the highest ROI desk upgrades you can make.
It’s clean. It’s intuitive. And once it’s there, it just quietly becomes part of how you work and play—without ever getting in the way.
If you’re on the fence: stop overthinking it. This setup earns its desk space.