Mauro113

ANTEC SILENT PC BUNDLE GIVEAWAY
 
Antec has been kind enough to offer you guys, the awesome Linus Tech Tips community, the exclusive chance to win a bundle of their awesome, silent PC parts!
 
The winner will receive:

1100 V2 Computer Case - http://store.antec.com/gaming-series/eleven-hundred-v2.html
EDG750 PSU - http://store.antec.com/edge-series/edg750.html
True Quiet Fans - http://store.antec.com/truequiet-series/
Kuhler 1250 - http://store.antec.com/liquid-cooling/kuhler-h2o-1250.html
Accent lighting kit (winner chooses the color) - http://ow.ly/CASzQ
Pulse headset (winner chooses the color) - http://www.antecmobileproducts.com/products/#headphones
 
 
So how do you enter? Just comment below in this thread and let us know what your favorite item in this bundle is and why. One comment (entry) per person.

This is a world-wide giveaway and will run from November 3, 2014 until November 10, 2014 at 4pm PST. The winner will be drawn using a random number generator and will be contacted by me through the forum. If you receive a message anywhere other than the forum claiming that you are the winner (through YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter) please IGNORE that message as it is NOT from us.

Thanks in advance for your comments, and thanks to Antec for sponsoring this giveaway!
 
 
WINNER UPDATE
The winner of this giveaway is Sneddon!
 
Since we did not receive a response from the original winner, we have been forced to redraw. The new winner is ryan9298b2! I have contacted them by PM - they have 3 days to respond.

As of today AMD's adaptive refresh rate technology "FreeSync" very much akin to Nvidia's G-Sync has been officially ratified as a VESA standard in Displayport 1.2a and is now officially known as Adaptive-Sync.
 
How Adaptive-Sync can work to reduce power consumption and improve content presentation.

 
Furthermore the Adaptive-Sync technology will be offered to all panel makers free of charge. This is quite different from G-Sync which requires the panel maker to pay Nvidia a licensing fee.
 
Source
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/2014/05/12/vesa-adds-adaptive-sync-displayport-1-2-standard/
 
Update : AMD has just released a Q&A about Adaptive-Sync and how it relates to FreeSync.

Q: When can I buy a monitor compatible with Project FreeSync?
A: AMD has undertaken every necessary effort to enable Project FreeSync in the display ecosystem. Monitor vendors are now integrating the DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync specification and productizing compatible displays. AMD is working closely with these vendors to bring products to market, and we expect compatible monitors within 6-12 months. 

Q: What are the requirements to use FreeSync?
A: To take advantage of the benefits of Project FreeSync, users will require: a monitor compatible with DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync, a compatible AMD Radeon GPU with a DisplayPort connection, and a compatible AMD Catalyst graphics driver. AMD plans to release a compatible graphics driver to coincide with the introduction of the first DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync monitors.
 
Q: What AMD Radeon GPUs are compatible with Project FreeSync?
A: The first discrete GPUs compatible with Project FreeSync are the AMD Radeon R9 290X, R9 290, R7 260X and R7 260 graphics cards. Project FreeSync is also compatible with AMD APUs codenamed “Kabini,” “Temash,” “Beema,” and “Mullins.” All compatible products must be connected via DisplayPort to a display that supports DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync.  
 
Q: How is Project Freesync different from NVIDIA G-Sync?
A: While both technologies have similar benefits, G-Sync uses expensive and proprietary hardware. In contrast, Project FreeSync utilizes the industry-standard DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync specification to promote wider adoption, lower cost of ownership, and a broad ecosystem of compatibility. 

You can read the full Q&A here which includes more questions and answers.

admin edit: added video inspired by this thread.
 

 
WARNING: I haven't seen anyone encountering this but just like overclocking, there is an inherent risk of damaging your display and it may not be covered by its warranty. It may not even be able to achieve the same settings other people are able to get.
 
Note: I did not make this guide but have used it on all of my monitors without any problems. Credits are due to the ones that originally posted these on another forum. 
 
What this guide is all about is how to get higher resolutions than what your display is capable of. It is called Downsampling. What it basically does is to have your GPU artificially push a resolution that's over what your display is able to do. The impact it will have on your GPU is equivalent to what it would do on a display that can actually output that resolution natively.
 
For example:
Your display is natively able to support a resolution up to 1920x1080. Using Downsampling it will send out a signal to tell your display to output a resolution of 2560x1440. Now on a display that can output a maximum resolution of 1080p has about 2 million pixels while a 1440p display outputs 3.7 million. Downsampling does not increase the amount of pixels being displayed. Itcan't go beyond that. What it does is bring that 1440p resolution to your 1080p display and compresses it to fit inside the screen. The effect it has is similar to zooming out on a lower resolution picture.
 
Below, you can see the difference in image quality on both images taken on the same display. Both images are using the same settings but with different resolutions.
 
 
Downsampling guide for NVIDIA cards: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509076
 
Downsampling guide for AMD cards: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=366244