Gaming Mouse

Each of the big gaming mice makers have put out a new mouse for 2008. Below we will review the top 3.

Important concepts

These are just some terms that you need to understand before we can discuss the pros and cons of the different mice.

IPS (Inches per Second)

Mice have a maximum speed at which you can move them before their sensors start having problems. Mice that with low IPS fail to track the motion, when you move them quickly and your cursor starts jerking around the screen. As long as you use them on a good mouse pad this is not an issue with any of our top 3 gaming mice.

DPI (Dots per Inch)

This is a measure of the sensitivity of your mouse. The higher the number the higher the maximum sensitivity. Some of the better gaming mice will let you toggle your sensitivity while you use it. This is real handy for swapping between sniping and normal rifle use.

Memory

Some mice have memory that stores your user settings. It is only an issue if you are at an event where you move around and play on multiple PCs with the same mouse. In that case the memory is very usefull.

Polling

When you use a mouse, your OS sends a message to the mouse every so often and the mouse then sends a message back, letting the OS know what it is doing. This will generally happen between 500 and 1,000 times a second or at 1,000 hertz. Faster is better, but you wont feel much of a difference above 750 hertz.

Weights

These gaming mice tend to be pretty light. Some of them come with weights that you attach to the mouse. This adds weight as well as customizable balance to the mouse.

Razer Lachesis

Vital stats

• 4,000 max dpi
• 1,000 Hz max polling
• 60-100 IPS
• Retail UK £45

The good

1. It is ambidextrous so good for right or left handed gamers.
2. The body is very supportive so good for long game time playing.
3. It has the highest dpi - so you can set it to be very sensitive.

The bad

1. I have to move my hand to reach the side buttons.
2. The dpi settings can be a little confusing.

The mouse is very broad, so very comfortable to use. There are 2 side buttons on each side, but they aren’t very sensitive and I found them a little difficult to use. The dpi can only be increased in increments of 125, so you may not be able to fine tune the mouse as much as you would like.

I would recommend it for MMORPGs but not for shooters.

Logitech G9

Vital stats

• 3,200 max dpi
• 1,000 Hz max polling
• 45-65 IPS
• Retail UK £40

The good

1. Best software of all the mice.
2. You can set it up to automatically switch to a profile when a game launches, so say one for shooters and another for strategy games.

The bad

1. You get the feeling they tried to put too many features into it.
2. It is a little small, not everybody will like that.

It is a very small mouse. I move my mouse around with my fingers so it’s fine for me, but some people like to use their palm and they may run into problems with this one.

The G9 comes with 2 grips the Wide Load, which has a slightly more curvy left side to rest your thumb on, and the more sleek Precision.

The mouse comes with 4 weights totaling 28 grams that you can use to adjust the mouse’s balance. It works really well and makes quite a difference.

Of the 3 mice reviewed this one is my favourite, if you liked the G5 you will love the G9.

Microsoft SideWinder

Vital stats

• 2,000 max dpi
• 500 Hz max polling
• 45 IPS
• Retail UK £32

The good

1. It’s the largest of the 3 and fairly comfortable to use.

The bad

1. The dpi and IPS is much lower than that of the competition.
2. You can’t disable the lights on it.

The mouse has 30 grams of addable weight.

It also has different mouse feet that you can attach to the bottom. If you go with this mouse make sure you have a low friction mouse pad or the feet will give you problems.

The Sidewinder is a fairly bare bones solution. It’s slightly cheaper than the other options and a fairly decent effort. I won’t be buying it though.