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it's reviews day Tuesday in our YouTube

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sponsored entry to awesome stuff Week 2015 and man this keeps freaking

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happening to me I am always declaring some new monitor to be the best thing

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ever compared to other 3D monitors that I've seen this is hands down the one to

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get it might just be the best I've ever seen only the lack of g-sync prevents

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this from winning my coveted editor's Choice Award the only choice for someone

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who wants all of that stuff 4K is off my wish list and large format 21 by9 is on

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it my Top Choice for a productivity minded workstation display and the

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xr3501 is my new Top Dog gaming Monitor

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and then someone be Su CG Acer BenQ whoever keeps standing up and being like

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um excuse me H ours has a high refresh rate or like ours is IPS or ours is

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bigger or ours is curved fool well today

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it's finally over because the x34

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Predator is here from Acer bringing

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perhaps an end to my quest for the perfect monitor let's find out if it

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succeeds shall

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we the master case 5 by Cooler Master gives you the freedom to truly make your

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midtower PC case your own with a variety of modular parts and accessories check

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out the link in the video description to learn more physically it seems like

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whether it's through careful market research or pure trial and error Acer

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has has improved a lot in terms of their performanc looking industrial design

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because the x34 Predator manages in my mind to look gamery without crossing the

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line to tacky starting at the back I do

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wish that the entire industry would lose the infatuation with glossy surfaces but

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there's an optional Vasa mount adapter and the Tilt and height adjustable stand

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has these kind of sharp angles and lines

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to it and with only a tiny orange Accent on the cable management pack pass

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through to reveal that it's a gaming monitor the bezels are as Slim as they

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can be while keeping that required chin bar to house electronics and even the

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front logo issues a brightly colored Affair in favor of a monochrome one with

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a subtle orange backing material but enough about how it looks on a shelf

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let's talk specs and see if the x34 Predator ticks all the right boxes 34-in

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curved display okay not as curved and therefore immersive feeling as the Ben

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qxr 3501 but better than flat IMO check

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AHS panel technology for Superior Color performance and viewing angles big check

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3440 X 1440 resolution much more

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difficult to drive than 2560 x 1080 more on that later but a much finer image and

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way better for regular desktop use check again so that sounds great so far lus

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but hold on a second none of this is anything we haven't seen before in fact

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what the hell is the difference between this and the XR 341 CK that you reviewed

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literally 2 months ago great question and here's the answer the things that

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set the x34 Predator apart from anything

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else that I've ever seen is that in addition to all of that it features

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gsync technology which you can learn more about here but basically it

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eliminates stutter and Screen tearing during game rendering on supported

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GeForce graphics cards and it can be overclocked from its stock 60 HZ refresh

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rate to a whopping one 100 Herz for a

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very noticeable Improvement in how frequently updated frames can be

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delivered to the gamers eyes so that's

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it Acer has officially delivered everything that I've been asking for

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since first laying eyes on an ultrawide one and a half years ago everything else

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at this point is just gravy which isn't to say that gravy is bad revisiting the

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rear of the monitor we've got a bit of an unusual IO layout there is a four

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port USB 3 Hub power input for the external brick an audio pass through

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that maybe someday a monitor manufacturer will put somewhere usable

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and what's this ah perhaps some gravy

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Acer has implemented not only the standard DisplayPort 1.2 that's been

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required for g-sync operation since the technology was first introduced but also

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an HDMI input that along with the 100

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Herz refresh rate capability of the display suggests that the Predator is

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running something more than just the original g-sync module the secondary

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input is limited to 5050 HZ by default indicating that to my disappointment it

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is an HDMI 1.4 rather than HDMI 2.0 Port

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but it's redeemed somewhat by my successful overclock to 60 HZ on a

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gtx980ti and it's still a heck of a lot better than nothing if you have a

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secondary PC or a console that you want to plug into your main monitor

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periodically and speaking of display overclocking how does that 100 HZ

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overclock work well actually the process was too straightforward for me and I got

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confused I should probably explain that people who are familiar with display

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overclocking know that it's done through the graphics card control panel not the

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monitor's onscreen menu well not on this

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bad boy to achieve the advertised up to 100 HZ overclock you just navigate to it

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in the menu confirm a reboot of the Monitor and configure your shiny new

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refresh rate in Windows the same way that you normally would which of course

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instantly made me curious to see if it could be pushed even further using the

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NVIDIA control panel and no not even one Herz Acer has

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already put their balls to the wall so to speak 100 HZ is all you get so then

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let's change gears and talk about what it's like gaming on my ultimate monitor

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well to put it succinctly it's super awesome but that doesn't really get my

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point across properly I mean I guess it's just hard for me to deliver that

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amped up you know like yeah yeah likeing

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rocks speech here because for me none of

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this is a surprise I've experienced g-sync I've experienced High refresh

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rate and I've experienced curved ultrawide I've just been patiently

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somewhat patiently waiting for someone to put them all together so the

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experience here is more akin to getting

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home sitting down after a long day and taking that first bite of my wife's

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amazing homemade pizza than it is to

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ripping open a surprise present on Christmas morning this is a deeply

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satisfying amazing gaming experience in everything from racing to Shooters to

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third person to anything it's the bomb

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which doesn't mean I'm not going to try and find problems with this monitor starting with input leg testing the x34

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Predator managed a mere 13.7 milliseconds with my Leo Bodner input

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leg tester so that won't be issue and picking up with panel color performance

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well damn when did gaming monitors get

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so good at this I mean no it's not perfect but at 98% coverage of srgb and

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color accuracy falling in the Delta e of 2 to four range pretty much across the

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board this monitor gaming aside is even

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suitable for Pro suumer Photo and video editing in the Bog standard default user

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mode without any calibration hot diggity

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there's a touch of back light bleed on a black background but nothing out of the

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ordinary and I feel like the anti-glare coating while not the most glare

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reducing I've ever encountered strikes a good balance between the clarity of the

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image and the reduction of Reflections

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so then my only real complaints that I can find are in the onscreen menu the

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monitor lacks any ultra low motion blur

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settings for controlling backlight strobing something that I don't

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personally use because it can't be used at the same time as g-sync right now

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which I prefer but it's been a staple on

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Modern g-sync monitors for quite some time so it's disappointing that it's not

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there and my second complaint the onc screen menu is just generally really

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clunky to navigate it's hard to tell what button you're pressing and it takes

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forever to get anything done but I guess

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that's about it oh no there's one more thing the price the x34 Predator may be

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amazing but it comes in at a whopping 13

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$100 US MSRP not to mention that because

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it runs at such a high resolution that to even benefit from its 100 HZ refresh

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rate you are going to need some serious graphics and CPU horsepower for modern

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AAA games at high settings but if you're

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a baller I can say with confidence this is the best gaming experience you can

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put on your desk and here's a cool side note if you're a baller thanks to this

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video's inclusion in awesome stuff Week 2015 there should actually be a new ad

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unit on it that YouTube is testing that allows you to see where to buy it from

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right within the video for most of us this is probably a non-factor but if

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you've got a couple Grand burning a hole in your pocket then I guess it saves

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your mouse and keyboard a little wear and tear and on that subject Mass drop you

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guys might have heard of mass drop before or you might not have but if you

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do want to check it out it's draw. p/ lus Tech tips and they've got all kinds

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of great stuff whether you're looking for like a cool new knife or an audio

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recorder a pair of headphones a keyboard they've got all kinds of great stuff and

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the way it works is simple the community gets together and says hey we've got

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this amazing thing that we want to buy but it's a little expensive Mass drop

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takes those requests back to the manufacturers and Distributors and gets

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authentic products that the more people commit to buy The more mass the lower

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the price drops for when they all go ahead and pay at the end of the drop and

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ship out to everyone very cool model and

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it is definitely worth shopping if you got a couple bucks and you don't mind

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finding something cool and spending it because I have certainly fallen into

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that trap before like oh this is cool oh that's really cool no way that's the

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drop price done so check them out at

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draw UPS SL Linus techtips and that is linked in the video

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description so thanks for for watching guys if this video sucked you know what

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to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or even

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consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon

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buying a cool t-shirt like this one this isn't a t-shirt whatever you get my

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point or even with a direct monthly contribution through our community Forum

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now that you're done doing all that you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little button in the

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top right corner to check out Luke's video where he determines what is the

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optimal positioning of the next down

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card when you're running a graphics card in your top slot for best performance

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and Cooling