The Necessities of a "Gaming" Mouse

[Gingy]

Hey so I'm putting together my first rig and I've gotten to the point where I'm looking for peripherals. Having never used any serious hardware I gotta know... What do I look for in a quality mouse? Its a budget build so my target range is around $30 USD or less.

 

What should I be looking for as far as:

Laser vs. Optical

Max DPI

Is Braided Cable needed?

How many extra buttons do you look for

What manufacturers are the best

And finally, do you have any mice you would recommend? 

[STRMfrmXMN]

Hey so I'm putting together my first rig and I've gotten to the point where I'm looking for peripherals. Having never used any serious hardware I gotta know... What do I look for in a quality mouse? Its a budget build so my target range is around $30 USD or less.

 

What should I be looking for as far as:

Laser vs. Optical

Max DPI

Is Braided Cable needed?

How many extra buttons do you look for

What manufacturers are the best

And finally, do you have any mice you would recommend? 

Check out the mouse thread in my sig for all the infos.

 

I prefer optical having used one more than laser.

Max DPI I ever use is 1000 and preferably under 800 while gaming

A braided cable is often annoying actually

I look for two side buttons for web browsing and that's about it

Logitech, Steelseries, Corsair, Roccat - these seem to have a fairly low number of quality issues. Razer, Mad Catz, companies that make super cheap things, they usually suck.

 

For your mouse, what grip do you use, what's the budget (and what currency) and how big are your hands?

[Castdeath97]

Optical laser loves to miss up the tracking.

You don't need much DPI, 1000 is more than enough for a 1080p display.

Branded cables are more of a luxury, but they look fancy.

The amount of buttons depends on the game.

For me crosiar and roccat

Crosiar M45 for FPS games.

[DarkBlade2117]

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gamdias-mouse-gms5000$30 eh?

[brokencross]

1. Optical

2. Irrelevant

3. Depends on the quality of the cable itself, there are many unbraided cable that are great and don't tangle and there are many braided cables that are just shit quality

4. I rarely use side buttons since I don't play MMOs/MOBAs

5. There's only one brand that I trust in having only great mice across the line up: Zowie.

6. Zowie FK1 (there's also the new ZA series which is supposed to be a FK revision), Steelseries Rival, Razer Deathadder, Logitech G502, Microsoft IE 3.0.

[Lolzious]

Optical is more presice, laser is cheaper and is better for high DPI, though I only recommend around 1000 dpi

Other then a good sensor, there's not much difference between a "mouse" and a "gaming mouse"

Zowie, Corsair, Roccat, and Func are some good brands off the top of my head

[DarkBlade2117]

Check out the mouse thread in my sig for all the infos.

 

I prefer optical having used one more than laser.

Max DPI I ever use is 1000 and preferably under 800 while gaming

A braided cable is often annoying actually

I look for two side buttons for web browsing and that's about it

Logitech, Steelseries, Corsair, Roccat - these seem to have a fairly low number of quality issues. Razer, Mad Catz, companies that make super cheap things, they usually suck.

 

For your mouse, what grip do you use, what's the budget (and what currency) and how big are your hands?

Mad Cat meh, Razer actually has some nice quality stuff. Their audio lineup is just horrible, any reasonable human being would never buy audio from Razer ( made the mistake once) But the Razer Deathadder is a very nice mouse and I personally have the Razer Naga Hex and havnt had a single problem with it.

[CostcoSamples]

Honestly, comfort is your top priority.  Any mouse designed for gaming will have a reasonably good sensor and buttons.  But there is no sense buying a fancy mouse that is not comfortable in your hand.

[STRMfrmXMN]

Mad Cat meh, Razer actually has some nice quality stuff. Their audio lineup is just horrible, any reasonable human being would never buy audio from Razer ( made the mistake once) But the Razer Deathadder is a very nice mouse and I personally have the Razer Naga Hex and havnt had a single problem with it.

The scroll wheel is held together with glue. Methinks the Deathadder is not made well.

[TheKDub]

Hey so I'm putting together my first rig and I've gotten to the point where I'm looking for peripherals. Having never used any serious hardware I gotta know... What do I look for in a quality mouse? Its a budget build so my target range is around $30 USD or less.

 

What should I be looking for as far as:

Laser vs. Optical

Max DPI

Is Braided Cable needed?

How many extra buttons do you look for

What manufacturers are the best

And finally, do you have any mice you would recommend? 

Laser vs. Optical - IMO it doesn't matter much, I've used both and have not noticed much of a difference, except the laser mouse tracks a hell of a lot better on most surfaces.

Max DPI - Depends on preference, I usually have mine set to around 2000 I think, and I use a 1080p monitor.

Is a braided cable needed? - No, though it looks nice and is typically stronger than a non-braided cable.

How many extra buttons? - Depends on the intended use, if you're a hardcore mmo player, then you're probably going to want a bunch of buttons, whereas if you are playing a fps or something, I'd say you don't need more than the left click, right click, middle click, and forward/back buttons.

What manufacturers are best? - Corsair, Logitech, and Steelseries are all pretty good.

What mice would you recommend? - Corsair M65 or M45 for mainly fps type games or others where you need to quickly drop your dpi down at the press of a button for improved accuracy, corsair m95 or logitech g502 for mmos.

[DarkBlade2117]

The scroll wheel is held together with glue. Methinks the Deathadder is not made well.

Just from my personal experiences I don't see what people have agaisnt them. Except for audio. Oh god the audio.. I regret the Razer Kraken Pros to much..

[STRMfrmXMN]

Just from my personal experiences I don't see what people have agaisnt them. Except for audio. Oh god the audio.. I regret the Razer Kraken Pros to much..

Their build quality is what I have against them. If they could make a better quality Deathadder Chroma that's slightly wider then they would have my wallet.

[MattTheMayor]

Hey so I'm putting together my first rig and I've gotten to the point where I'm looking for peripherals. Having never used any serious hardware I gotta know... What do I look for in a quality mouse? Its a budget build so my target range is around $30 USD or less.

 

What should I be looking for as far as:

Laser vs. Optical

Max DPI

Is Braided Cable needed?

How many extra buttons do you look for

What manufacturers are the best

And finally, do you have any mice you would recommend? 

 

Laser for most games, I heard optical was great for FPS

 

Max DPI I've ever used was 1600

 

Braid cable isn't necessary but it looks great

 

Two buttons for web browsing and whenever I'm in games, I might rebind it in-game to use the mic.

 

AFAIK, Logitech and Corsair are up there right now

 

A mouse I would recommend to you is the Etekcity Scroll X1 mouse. It's around 12 dollars. My favorite mouse for budget gaming.

 

It's a laser mouse and you can find my review here

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/311948-etekcity-scroll-x1-review-budget-gaming-mouse/

[Verne]

All the current top sensors are "optical" (laser sensors are actually optical, too). A bad optical sensor is still worse than a good laser, but a good optical will beat any laser. There are plenty of articles and videos on the net that tackle the issue. The most common problem with laser sensors is the "acceleration" (not really acceleration in same sense as software acceleration you can turn on and off) which can cause the cursor to over- or undershoot the intended target, which can be a difference between a kill and a miss in games.

 

Maximum DPI (CPI would be the correct term) does not matter, as long as it goes as high as you need it to go. Higher does not mean better. Many gamers for example prefer lower CPI for improved accuracy. With a super high CPI it can be very hard to land that 2 by 2 pixel sized head shot when the smallest movement of the mouse moves the cursor half way through the screen.

 

Braided cable is definitely not required. My own opinion is that they are worse than non-braided. Braided cables tend to stick to edges much easier, fray and gather a ton dust and dirt.

 

Extra buttons is personal preference. I myself like to have at least the two thumb/side-buttons and don't mind a few more extras. Some people cannot play MMOs without a massive amount of mouse buttons. I prefer to have most of my binds on the keyboard instead and use more basic "non-MMO" mice. If you cannot imagine any use for extra buttons, you probably won't need them. No need to waste money on inferior products just because they have more buttons (or features).

 

For mice, most manufacturers have at least one good mouse. I wouldn't look too much into branding and focus more on getting the best fit for your hand (ergonomics), the best performance (good optical sensor) with the features you require (lighting, extra buttons, wireless, etc.). Overall, Zowie is a pretty good brand with only good mice in their line up and Logitech currently has the "best" (tech specs wise) sensor in their G303 and G502 mice.

 

As for what mice are recommended, try to figure out your preferred grip style and what you actually want from a mouse. However, with a $30 budget you won't get any of the really good mice, with the best probably being Logitech G100S. CM Storm has a few nice mice that usually hover just over the $30 mark: Spawn (might be refreshed soon though), Recon and Alcor (not easily available in NA though). SteelSeries Kana v2 might be around $30 if you get lucky. You could also try and look for used or refurbished mice.

[ManOfDisguise]

Hey so I'm putting together my first rig and I've gotten to the point where I'm looking for peripherals. Having never used any serious hardware I gotta know... What do I look for in a quality mouse? Its a budget build so my target range is around $30 USD or less.

What should I be looking for as far as:

Laser vs. Optical

Max DPI

Is Braided Cable needed?

How many extra buttons do you look for

What manufacturers are the best

And finally, do you have any mice you would recommend?

-Optical

-Personal preference but DPIs of 3k and higher I find more than enough and unnecessary

-I like non braided more, better maneuverability, less sluggish,lighter but less resistant against damage(like pets biting through it)

- I dont want too many buttons as I dont play games or use programs that rely on many buttons

- There is no best manufacturer almost all the big known ones have at least one good mouse

- Atm I have a CM Storm Alcor and for 35 euros its an awesome mouse. minimalistic, pretty big, nice ergonomics, 3090 sensor which some people dont like because of higher LOD but its a very accurate sensor with no accel, prediction.

There are many great mice out there, most important thing is the shape, if it doesnt your hand good enough

enough dont even bother