Looking for a mouse pad. Please help me. (in Off-topic)
AdminShade
November 13 2005 10:27 AM EST
Hey, I recently (yesterday) bought a new mouse, the Logitech MX518, not too expensive and a great mouse so far. Even while I am left handed and the mouse has a right handed profile.
Now I used to have a mouse pad for balled mice, but when changing to optical mice I never used a mouse pad anymore.
But my desk doesn't seem to like mice very much because it is a reasonably weak wooden board on which the mouse and keyboard are used on, so my mouse 'damages' the top coating of the board, which is both annoying and ugly.
So now for the actual story about a new mouse pad: I am looking for a mouse pad, gamers style, which should be sturdy and heavy duty that will last me a really long time AND that works well for optical mice.
I have heard about gamers mouse pads but here in the Netherlands they aren't easy to come by so perhaps I would have to order one online...
So please help me if you know about great mouse pads and where they could be bought ;)
AdminShade
November 14 2005 6:00 AM EST
Still nobody knowing anything about mice pads?
Adrian Exodus
November 14 2005 6:14 AM EST
hmmm
ok getting a teflon coated one could be good for gaming, also larger the better i find, but with the logitech just a cheap pad could work just fine, all depends on your prefernce of friction and size.
i have a pad with silicon wrist thing and a overly large area, its nice.
AdminG Beee
November 14 2005 6:56 AM EST
Optical mice and high level professional gaming don't often go hand in hand as the technology still isn't quite there yet. Of course, they're good enough for the normal gamer now-a-days.
The key to your optical mice is to select the correct surface that best suits the sensor. I've got a load of teardown reports on mices kicking about, hopefully the 518 is amongst them. I'll have a look to see what image sensor is inside and be able to tell you what surfaces they respond to best.
Many of the gaming mice that are out on the market are actually still using older generation sensors and merely come with different drivers to "improve performance", making little or no difference at all.
As a basic rule try and avoid shiny black / white surfaces.
AdminShade
November 14 2005 7:33 AM EST
well the 518 is a high performance gaming mouse.
it has up to 5 presets of sensitivity ranging from 400 to 1600 DPI
i now have it set up to standard have 800 dpi but with an easy click on a button i can switch higher either to 1100 dpi and 1600, or lower to 600 and 400 dpi.
so either a teflon, or even glass pad, with enough surface would do nicely yes.
spydah
November 14 2005 4:01 PM EST
not looked at mouse specs for a while g bee? optical/laser are sooo much better for gaming then any dirt encrusted ball will ever beee.
perhaps you should check out the razor copperhead, for instance ;)
also www.razorone.com has some ninja pads for all your gaming mouse needs.
/\88/\
Special J
November 14 2005 4:05 PM EST
Razor mice and mouse pads are the best in the biz Shade.
Maelstrom
November 14 2005 4:09 PM EST
AdminShade
November 14 2005 4:10 PM EST
True i know the Razor boomslang and its newer version are the best of the best, but also a bit beyond my price range.
but that website you gave me doesnt work spydah.
Special J
November 14 2005 4:13 PM EST
I have a Razer exactmat and laser mouse that uses bluetooth (wireless), which is not a Razer and have no issues.
AdminShade
November 14 2005 4:14 PM EST
True that mouse pad looks awesome, but alas they don't ship to the Netherlands, neither to any other European country...
and it is not that cheap either, but still 35 USD isn't THAT much...
Special J
November 14 2005 4:15 PM EST
I think they do have suppliers, check froogle for exact mat.
AdminShade
November 14 2005 4:20 PM EST
No need to, already found the European site. :D
AdminShade
November 14 2005 5:05 PM EST
Well the European website/store also ships in the Netherlands, good for me.
Found there the Razer eXactBundle (eXactMat + eXactRest) which look awesome ^_^
the cost would be 40 Euro which perhaps is quite expensive for a mouse pad, but for this I think it's actually not so expensive
Found some Dutch sites also offering but their prices are higher, alas can't pay with paypal myself, so would need to find someone who can pay for me ^_^
but I will do that in a different thread to not bypass the WTB thread costs :)
AdminG Beee
November 15 2005 5:12 AM EST
not looked at mouse specs for a while g bee? optical/laser are sooo much better for gaming then any dirt encrusted ball will ever beee.
Yes Optical and laser mices are better than the old ball mouse and they have been for quite some time now. However they're not as good as the marketing behind them suggests.
perhaps you should check out the razor copperhead, for instance ;)
e.g. Razor Viper is marketed as a tip top gaming mouse. Tosh!
It has an Agilent 2051 sensor inside and offers a frame per second rate of ~2,500fps (no matter what it says on the box) that's worse than some of the MS optical mice (~10,000fps) that have been on the market for two years. Razor go on about the dots per inch (6,000dpi) and claim this is super duper, well that's all down to the drivers and user preference. Sure you can set the mouse to whatever dpi you wish and have it moving a little distance or large distance in relation to your hand movements and this is what gamers talk about as being great. It may be "great" but it's not as accurate as a mouse that deals in higher fps rates. Accuracy is in the large determined by how many image captures you can take of the surface that you are scrolling over - this is managed (not exclusively) by the fps and to a lesser extent correction software that "guesses" where you're going.
What's good about the Razor bundle is that it's shiny, has go faster stripes on the side and has been aggressively marketed as a gaming mouse.
As for the laser mice options: They use exactly the same sensor (in most cases) as your average optical mouse. What laser mice do differently comes down to optics and the way they deliver light to the target surface. More light = more sensitivity = better gaming. Yes that's correct, however the difference (at the moment) in performance is so marginal that it doesn't justify the cost. The industry is only going the laser route in order to fleece more cash from the consumer.
Shade, for best performance you want a surface that deals with your mouse the best (but you know this already) so it's just a case of finding which one is good with whatever mouse you have. I wouldn't recommend spending too much cash on a fancy mouse mat though :) I had been hoping to be smart and tell you exactly what surfaces are best based on various usage and testing stats, however as of yet I don't know which particular sensor is inside the MX518 so can't comment.
[EG]Stump
November 15 2005 6:36 AM EST
Shade, also check out Rat Padz at http://www.ratpadz.com/
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