Toby

What is your windows pointer speed and do you have "enhanced pointer precision" enabled? If your mouse was set up "correctly" (1:1 dot-to-pixel ratio), you should be able to go from one side of the screen to the other in barely over half an inch of movement. At 4800 DPI, your entire monitor should be contained within an area of 0.5 x 0.3 inches, as far as mouse movement is concerned. Your wrist should barely be moving and the difference between 1080p and 1440p shouldn't feel way slower by comparison, unless something is wrong.

While there is an optical mouse with 6 side buttons (the G602), it doesn't have a flawless sensor, which is typically what makes optical preferable when it comes to gaming mice. It's also not wired. Nothing exists that fits all your criteria, but some mice come close. The M90/M95 has more than 6 side buttons, but fits your colour scheme. The G700s has four side buttons and 3 on the front-left (look up a picture on google), but has non-blue LED DPI indictator. The G600 has more than 6 side buttons, but fits your colour scheme. The G602 has 6 side buttons precisely and fits your colour scheme, but is wireless. The G500s has 3 side buttons, 2 front-left DPI buttons and fits your colour scheme. Wildcard: Mad Catz M.M.O.7 is available in a gloss black and silver colour scheme with blue LEDs and has 6-10 side buttons, depending on how you look at it. It's a fair complaint. If you're going to give advice that has nothing to do with the OP's needs, then at best you're wasting your own time and theirs, at worst you end up making them buy something that doesn't fulfill their requirements.

It's not blatant enough that you'll notice it overshooting a third of your screen or anything. We're talking a few pixels. Most people don't notice it, but that doesn't mean it won't lose you a few kills (obviously the more precise you need to be, the worse it'll affect you).

Sensor? M40. It's an odd phenomenon with mice that the more expensive they are, the less likely they are to have the best sensor. On account of the M40 having an A3090 and the R.A.T 9 not having an A3090/PMW3310 sensor, the M40 wins out. Reliability? It'll vary, but the RAT has more than can go wrong, so it'd be perfectly reasonable for that to have more problems. Corsair also tends to have a better reputation for quality than MadCatz. Software? Unless you require particularly complex macros, it probably doesn't matter. The R.A.T's looks nicer to me, but I notice the M40's has surface calibration and lift-distance alteration. I can't see that in the R.A.T 9 settings. All in all, the M40's probably a better mouse, but then you don't buy a R.A.T because you want a great mouse, you buy it because you want a great toy - and it is. The R.A.T 9 is probably a far better toy than any other mouse out there.

Deathadder has a better sensor than the Mamba. Objectively the Deathadder wins out if you don't mind a wired mouse.

Laser is fine, it's just not optimal. Nowadays there's little reason not to get optical unless you have special requirements (MMO mouse, wireless etc.). With the M40/M45, if you ever miss, or under/overshoot the mark, you'll know it's your error and not the mouse's. You don't have that guarantee with the M65, but if the aesthetics are more important to you (wanting good-looking gear is entirely reasonable), then go for the M65.

What does this mean? If your palm is touching the mouse it's a palm/claw grip. If your palm isn't touching the mouse it's a fingertip grip. Are you saying you switch between the two?

I typically suggest going as low as you can with DPI, without it becoming a hindrance. It's pretty easy to make the case that higher DPI makes things harder to hit. As for the M65, it's arguably one of the worst mice you could get for FPS (which isn't to say it's bad at all, just the "least good").

If you want a mouse that looks good, then go for it. If you want a mouse for FPS, it's arguably one of the worst you could get (but then, even the worst gaming mice are at least adequate for most things).

Read the thread.

How often do you switch DPI that the G400's DPI buttons were a deal breaker? The fact that you play primarily FPS with a side order of MOBA makes optical mice seemingly a no-brainer. Is there any reason you're interested in the G500s aside from it matching your keyboard?

- What's your grip? - What types of games do you play? - Do you have any preference between right-handed or ambidextrous mice? - Do you have any preference in terms of style/colour scheme? - What are your priorities in terms of sensor accuracy, comfort, aesthetics etc.?

The Naos 3200 has prediction (and the 7000 doesn't). If you don't already know what that is, then you probably won't care about it. Prediction basically means whenever you're drawing an almost-straight-line left/right or up/down, your mouse will decide you're trying to draw a straight line and stop your mouse from deviating. It can make miniscule adjustments on the vertical/horizontal plane troublesome at times, but it's a subtle effect, to the point that you probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't told you it was there.

I'm not sure how much price is an issue, but I believe the Naos 7000 is a straight-up upgrade, using the same sensor found in the Steelseries Rival.

The only thing I can think of would be the Steelseries World of Warcraft: Catalysm gaming mouse, though I'm not sure it'll still available anywhere.

The Mionix Naos 7000 is the most precise equivalent of that, though the shape is slightly different.

Yeah, the moderators here will do that. There's one or two that aren't very good. I remember I once discovered I could use the tiny speaker at the top of my CRT monitor as a really terrible microphone. I never understood how or why that worked.

Fingertip grip, people. He doesn't want his palm getting in the way. Here's a size-chart. The Razer Abyssus is probably your best bet. The Krait 2013 is good, but you'd probably have to import it. The CM Storm Spawn is also good, but I'm not sure you can still get ahold of it anywhere. If you're willing to risk a few extra millimeters, the Roccat Savu, Roccat Kone Pure Optical (not "Kone Pure") and Zowie EC2 Evo are also worth a look (all about 120mm).

It wouldn't be, no. Fingertip grip makes ZERO contact with the palm (unless it's incidental from using too big a mouse). Palm and claw both do, purposefully.

The problem is more that mice are being made with sub-optimal sensors for no good reason. Fortunately we now have enough mice with perfect sensors in enough different shapes that there's rarely a good reason to buy a laser one (MMO and wireless mice being exceptions).

If I had to guess, better price and better sensor.

You didn't say cheap. You said best value. The G400s is the best value. No question. It's arguably the best gaming mouse going and it's only £35. Now, if money is your sole concern, then check out the CM Storm Xornet. It's tiny and the sensor's inferior, but it's the only mouse in that price range worth considering. I'd still go for the G400s to be honest.

Nope. It uses the same ADNS-9500 laser sensor that you'll find in the original Sensei. Out of curiosity, who told you it was optical?

The Sensei RAW will be less precise than the Deathadder you have now. The Rival is the only thing Steelseries makes that's as suited to CS as what you're currently using.

It's great that you've learnt the pros and cons of optical and laser sensors, but try to avoid becoming a zealot. While optical sensors are optimal for certain gameplay, that doesn't render all laser mice obsolete. MMOs are a huge market by themselves, but there are plenty of other games or genres that benefit from a healthy supply of easily-reached keybindings. The fact that other people might have different priorities doesn't make them clueless. No. That's the number row. The number pad is what goes next to the arrow keys and really isn't useless.