Toby

You generally want wires connected to things when it comes to gaming.

CM is Cooler Master. You mean Corsair?I think he was referring to the M90 rather than the M60, which is actually a fair bit cheaper for some reason ($50). Assuming you actually meant Corsair, consider CM Storm's Recon mouse. It has the best sensor on the market, 4 side buttons (two on each side) and it's pretty cheap, too. Only downside is that the software takes some grappling with. Edit: Actually if you don't play much FPS, CM Storm's Inferno mouse might be worth a look too.

M90*

Deathadder 3.5G, Black Edition and 4G all qualify. YMMV as far as the 4G's build quality though (specifically the rubber on the sides). I don't know about the Respawn/3G, but they're probably fine too. I doubt you'll find any models older than that.

Only with a sniper perhaps, but I'm not sold on sniper buttons yet. It'd still have the acceleration though, which is more detrimental than the sniper button is beneficial.

...If not for the acceleration.

I haven't seen anything about high lift-off distance, but I *do* know that the Recon's LOD slider is reversed. It goes from 1 to 5 and where you might think 1 would be the lowest lift off distance, it's actually the highest. Perhaps they're falling victim to this?

Aside from the Deathadder, CM Storm Recon, R.A.T. 3 optical and Roccat Savu, the mice you're looking at are the best out there for FPS. You couldn't really go wrong with any of them.

The Bitfenix Prodigy is definitely a box, it's just a box with handles. The Silverstone FT03 or Xigmatek Gigas are probably as unusual as you'll get for mATX aside from the Prodigy. Smaller mid-towers (ATX) are certainly comparable to the Prodigy though, because it's so damn big, so maybe have a look at those. Lian Li's V650 for example, holds near enough the same volume with similar dimensions (though that's still a box).

I'd rather support CM as a company because they're awesome, but otherwise it's mainly up to you as far as what you prefer in terms of features, form factor and aesthetics.

Then what are you looking for?

Noiseblocker ELoops are pretty awesome, but can experience sound issues as a pull fan. Kept as push, these may well qualify as "best fans", even including Noctua. The Nexus True Quiet and Scythe Slipstream 1200RPM are also pretty well regarded in terms of airflow-to-noise (which I guess is how you'd gauge the "best" fans).

You don't get both. You either get silence or you get a lot of airflow. If noise is your priority, the Noiseblocker M12-S1 is pretty much as quiet as you'll get while still retaining any semblance of airflow.

I hear the Zalman is okay for what it is, but you're buying the absolute cheapest thing available, so be prepared to deal with the downsides that come with that.

Does your R.A.T. 3 happen to be the optical version? If so, you actually have the best mouse sensor for FPS that's going. Otherwise... G400 Razer Deathadder Roccat Savu Zowie AM Zowie EC1 Evo CM Storm Recon ...These are the best mice for FPS.

I'd noticed uTorrent going downhill rapidly since they got bought by BitTorrent, but this is what got me to try going back to 2.2.1 and I couldn't be happier. So much less bullshit - just lightweight and simplistic like utorrent should be. Edit: In fact, maybe I should go back further...

Blue seem to have mysteriously disappeared from UK CM Storm boards and I'm not really sure what's going on. As for the TK, the blue and brown versions simply don't exist here yet. Aside from the Blackwidow and QPads there are... - The Filco Majestouch II TKL for £95 at The Keyboard Company (don't mind the site, they're legit) - The Ducky G2 Pro for £99.95 at CCL Computers - The Ducky DK-9087 (Shine II TKL) for £105.98 at CCL Computers and KustomPCs. All three of which are available with all four switches.

The smiley was what made it ominous. In my head a gangster was saying "Don't fight it...just let it happen" *grin*. Spooky, right?You don't need to move your mouse that fast for acceleration to kick in (as you see mentioned in the Truthful Mouse Guide, the A9500 accelerates at pretty low speeds). Hell, there are laser mice with lower malfunction speeds than that. Also I'm pretty sure people are still hitting the perfect control and malfunction limits on mice, despite 1000hz (I'll be honest, malfunction speeds aren't something I've looked into overly much, believe it or not). Being a regular visitor of OCN's mouse forum, everything tells me it's less than personal preference, so I can't say that.

Don't fight it? That's sounds like a rather aggressive threat, jeeze...So are you saying you don't think optical mice tend to have lower acceleration or higher perfect control and malfunction speeds? Or that laser mice don't tend to be fussier about the surface they're on?

That depends what you mean. Is the worst optical sensor better than the best laser sensor? Probably not. The best opticals however (the Avago A3090, S3888 and S3988 sensors specifically) are definitively more precise than any laser sensor out there, again due to acceleration and perfect control speeds. Out of curiosity, do you have any issues when you pick up your Mamba?

Don't show him this thread, whatever you do. Youtube comments are typically a cesspit to be ignored. As for the answer, laser sensors have acceleration. Moving the mouse at different speeds over the same distance will cause the pointer to move a different distance. Meanwhile, certain optical sensors have no acceleration and thus the pointer goes where you want it to. Edit: Also, optical mice have higher perfect control speed, which is the speed at which a mice tracks perfectly and a higher malfunction speed, which is the speed at which it just goes "I can't deal with this" and looks at the floor in shame or something. Edit II: I lied, the Phillips Twin-Eye sensor (used in a lot of Razer mice and some of the R.A.T. mice) is a laser mouse without acceleration (I think?), but it still has the other limitations of laser sensors, plus the infamous z-axis issue (more or less of a problem depending on your sensitivity and how often you pick up your mouse).

How high is higher? Where do the two diverge?

Headphones all the way for me. :P

Recon: Good for small/medium hands, right side-buttons are prone to being accidentally pressed (unbind recommended), scrolling up supposedly feels cheap/weird, ambidextrous, CM Storm are awesome. Savu: Not as informed on this one. Apparently again a smaller mouse, easy shift+, no buttons for DPI control, good "feel"/texture, ergonomic, but possible issue with thumb sliding up and accidentally hitting side buttons. Personally I'd go for the Recon, simply because the scroll wheel looks fun to use and the guys who make it are generally awesome, so I'd prefer supporting them over Roccat. Then again, I don't like the sound of the up-scroll on the Recon and the Savu's scroll wheel looks nearly as fun, plus the lack of DPI control wouldn't bother me and I like the idea of the grippiness of the Savu...Shit, you're right, this is a hard decision.

Do both keyboards use USB ports and have you used the same USB port for both? Random ideas: - Does the Lycosa have backlight levels? It not, it could be something weird about that. - Electrical interference (already mentioned). - "Software" conflict with the PX21 control box and it's split audio controls ("firmware" might be better? I'm not really sure). Perhaps whatever it uses for it's "second" audio control is what Ducky uses for it's backlight. I imagine you probably did, but did you try plugging your headphones/keyboard into the front I/O and the other into the rear? Or maybe even one of them into your monitor, if that has USB ports.