gonX

Note: Every time you buy a laser mouse, god kills a kitten! Why? Read this!

Introduction:
Looking for the best mouse in terms of performance? There is plenty of other guides on the internet relating to performance of mice, but does not take ergonomics as much into consideration.

DPI, grams, what?
DPI stands for "dots per inch", and is also used by printers. The average user cannot "dispose" of any more than 800 dpi, so going above this is pointless. Also, the average mouse is "only" 400 dpi, and there is mice which upscales after installing drivers, such as the MX510/G1 (400 > 800 dpi)
But still, do use DPI as a major factor in selecting your mouse as long as it is above or equal to 400 dpi.

There is also grams, which I feel is quite important too. Very few people do like heavy/clunky mice when gaming. You average mouse weights 110-130 grams, and many people feel this is too heavy. Some mice has an internal weight in them for such case, which you can remove at the expense of a voided warranty.
I will point out grams throughout the reviews too, and if it is light or heavy.

There is also mouse speed, and when they cap out.
The average person only moves at 0.8-1.2m/s, and the hardcore gamer up to 4.5 m/s (absolute max) (and for anyone interested I play at 1.1 sens in CS 1.6 on my 450dpi mouse (Deathadder), and top out at about 3-4 m/s. I use 0.275 in CS:S on 1800dpi.)
Most casual gamers will hit up to 2 m/s

Mousepads!
Far the most of any people misses the mousepad... it is an essential for ANY gamer to have if you want to play seriously. Playing on your table can do many thing, including but not limited to scratching of either device or "decreased" performance. No, a paper with the corners taped down does not apply as a mousepad. It's a silly excuse for thinking you're cool, while you're not.

Out of the gaming grade mousepads I have owned, I liked these:
Icemat (which has a new name now)
Steelpad S&S
Steelpad 4D
Steelpad QCK Heavy
New: Steelpad 5L

I also tried the Steelpad 4D but I thought that was awful.

I have not tried the Razer eXactmat, but I tried touching it and it seemed quite equal to the Steelpad 4D, but I did not spend long time together with that due to it was quite crappy. Can't say if the eXactmat is, but I really doubt it is as bad as the 4D.

Out of the Icemat, Steelpad S&S, 5L and QCK, it's mostly dependant on your own option and feel. If you like cloth pads, the QCK is the one for you, perhaps the 5L even. If you like hard surfaces, it's between the Icemat and S&S. Even the 5L qualifies here.

The downside of the Icemat is that because of the nature of its surface, you can't really swing your mouse fast on it. Because of that I don't recommend it for low sens gamers. Medi-sens gamers might just be fine with it.

Don't let that set you off buying it though, because it is a really good mousepad with great potentials, and it is the one of all 3 that has the best control and glide. I don't use it due to the performance "issue" I wrote above, and it's not very big (even though I have the 2nd version) compared to the QCK. My current mousepad is the 5L for anyone interested, because of its performance.

I stopped using the S&S though after using it for 2 years, seeing as it got pretty worn up after using it plenty hours each day, and doesn't like some mice (mostly laser). I'm not sure if they still wear down in the same way as they did when I bought them, but if you buy this, be prepared to buy a new one once every year or every second year (depending on how much you play).

I just recently got the 5L too. The 5L is nice because it's stiff and solid (meaning it doesn't move), and it's actually a great mix between the Icemat and the QCK series... it's slightly smaller than the QCK Heavy, but with more actual playable space due to the logo not being made out of stupid rubber ON TOP of the mousepad, like it is on most of the (older?) QCK series. This is a pretty decent mouspad, and I would probably prefer that together with the Icemat. Icemat for glide and 5L for speed.

So pretty much (out of those that I've owned):
Performance = Icemat/5L
Comfort (cloth) = 5L or QCK
Size = QCK with the 5L right behind
Transportability = S&S/5L (though the 5L is large and may not fit in all bags)

Mouse Performance!

Get to it!
The current best performance mouse would be the Razer Deathadder (previously the MX500). The reason to this is because of it's incredible DPI and the threshold of skipping in speed.
No (human) person will be able to cap out this mouse's blasting report speed, which caps out and gives up at 4.4 m/s - and starts skipping at first 3.92 m/s!

If you don't like the Deathadder, you can opt for the MX500 which I also highly recommend, but is hard to find (and get) nowadays.

Polling rates
Polling rates are easily adjusted by THIS tool, and is rated in "Hz", or reports per second. Polling rates are a somewhat important thing, but not as important as for you to change mouse for it. IE. G5 to MX518 (500Hz to 125Hz)
You can check your mouse's polling rate with THIS tool.
It can also be rated in MS, 125 Hz is 8 ms, and is generally NOT what you want. Almost any mouse will respond positively to the rate adjusting utility above, and can reduce the mouse lag you can feel on some mice. Notice that the MS does not indicate how delayed the signal is, but how long there is between the mouse sends new information. It's not like lag in games, it's like the network update rate.

Acceleration Fix / CPL Mousefix
This is THE! deal with mice. For many gamers, they have not done this step, and I know 95% will hate this to start with - but seriously, get used to it! Acceleration provides for an inaccurate way of aiming, and is really only necessary for VERY old mice, which doesn't quite apply to this article, does it? No

Firstly, are you running XP or Vista?
Vista is quite different and difficult to the XP way.

XP:
1) Download mouse_fix.zip
2a) Extract the mouse_fix.zip to somewhere.
2b) Apply the mouse_fix.reg
3) Reboot, done!

If you don't notice any difference:
1) You might be running some service that already does this (such as SetPoint or IntelliPoint)
2) "Increase Pointer Precision" in the mouse control panel of Windows might be turned on. Turn it off.

Vista (notice: does not work properly under 64-bit)

1) Download wcafix_20080209.7z from THIS thread. (notice: it's a 7z file, not a zip file. You might need WinRAR)
2) Extract to a place where you can find it, preferably the desktop (You MUST extract it, you cannot run it from the archive)
3) Run install.cmd
3a) If any error comes up here - PM me and I will try to figure it out with you. The most common error is that it had not been run as an administrator, and another being that you didn't disable driver signature enforcement correctly.
4) Reboot!
4a) If you are unable to boot, go to safe mode and disable the "wcafix" service.

Sensitivities
Sensitivities are a VERY important part of your gaming. The Windows sensitivity should ALWAYS be set in the middle (6th step), due to that Windows adjusts it in a weird way, which isn't accurate.
Most gamers are comfortable at 3 sens, and pro gamers at sub-1.5 (relative to 800DPI).

The FPS in your game is essential!
Not having a fluid FPS can kill your game too... that doesn't mean that it has to be above 45 fps all the time, but more like 40 constantly. It's the same thing as mouse acceleration, it makes you play different each time, so Vsync is definitely recommended to turn on.

Alternatives

If you can't get the Deathadder in your area (unlikely) there are the G1/MX510 (again same hardware in different shells, just like the MX500 = MX300), which does not perform as well, but is still under production (or at least the G1 is), in contrary to the MX500/MX300.
This engine tops out at ~1.7 m/s and gives up at 3.4 m/s.

There is also the MS Intelli 3.0, which is still used by many professional players, such as HeatoN from NiP (now manager for Stockholm Magnetic). It's also a great mouse, and tops out at about 1.55 m/s, and decreases slightly until it simply just gives up at 2.1 m/s (note: the MS WMO 1.1 is equal to this mouse in hardware)

Fourth option leaves us the MX518, which is also a great mouse, though with a quite unneeded DPI - 1600 DPI - will cause hassle for many gamers in Windows. It caps out at ~2 m/s, and the research team (ESReality.com, check the credits section at the bottom) could not make it give up, even at 4.5 m/s. Similiar mice to this is the Razer Krait and Diamondback.

Fifth option leaves us for another manufacturer, which is Razer. Razer was known for their Boomslang optimecanical (ball) mouse and it's responsiveness.
It was the fundament of gaming mice.

Now, to the mice by Razer:
- Razer Diamondback
- Razer Krait
- Razer Deathadder
I know there is the Copperhead too, but PLEASE read whole the review

I cannot say too much about them seeing as I have not tried any of them, with the exception of the Deathadder and Copperhead

The Diamondback and Krait are both very equal, based on opticals, and both running at 1600 dpi (again, they're this far down the chart due to the DPI, though, on the other hand it is far more adjustable and precise than Logitech's counterpart - the MX518)

The Krait and Diamondback (DB from now on) both tops out at near 1.8m/s, but the Krait craps out at a measly 3.8m/s, and the Diamonback was beyond ESReality's pulley's speed.

Both mice are great performers, and is great for almost any gamer. Though, there is many people that does not like the shape of these mice.

Luckily enough the Deathadder was recently released with an updated firmware, which allows it to excel at both low and high DPIs. This makes it the currently best mouse on the market - compared to the previous leader, MX500. When using them there are virtually no difference other than the majorly improved DPI and the slightly higher (but unneccesary) skipping threshold.

So how much "performance" do I need?
If you look further up in my guide, I described that the average person moves the mouse at up to 1.2 m/s, the casual up to 1.6 m/s and the professionals up to 2.1 m/s
Averagely, this table can be followed (~1600 dpi):

Sens (CS:S) to average m/s
5 -> 1.0
3 (standard) -> 1.4 m/s
2 -> 1.9 m/s
1 and below -> 2.3 m/s

This is just for getting the idea, it's by no means 100% accurate. That means don't buy a new mouse just because of this chart!

Now, to the other mice on the market.

What mice isn't suited for gaming?
Contrary to popular belief, the G7/G5/G3 is actually one of the worst mice - albeit one of the best laser mice - for gaming. In general laser mice just isn't suited for FPS gaming! Steer clear unless you don't play FPS'es at all.

Other questions:

I got one from Drax:
Because they're generally flagged as being "better" than their optical/whatever counterparts, so in theory they should be boycotted, but also because their top speed is FAR from as high as say optical or infrared.

If you're one of those who play at a low sensitivity, you probably notice it alot. I got my G5 back in the time where I was trying to reduce my sensitivity alot, because I started playing better in it.
I think I was down to about 2 when I really started noticing how crappy my G5 was, so I went out and bought a Copperhead (just like you), and that was far from better - actually, it was much worse than the G5 in terms of flicking your mouse fast.

I'm currently (at the time of writing) on a G1 which is based on the MX510, which is one step below the MX518.

I'm getting a MX500 very soon, which is one of the best mice (together with the MX300) in terms of top speed (caps out at 3.9 (perfect and malfunction response) m/s, compared to 1.68 perfect and 3.3 malf. m/s with my G1)

Hope this helps

PS. Oh yeah, if it matters, the Copperhead has perfect response up to 0.83 m/s and fails completely (malfunction speed) at 0.85.




And here's one from v193r in a mail:
Hey, I believe the difference between the MX518 SE and non-SE is just the color.
Overclocking this mouse in particular isn't going to do anything as Sujoy mentions, why exactly I don't know, but it seems like Logitech has some limit hardcoded in the mouse.
Your own reaction time has nothing to do with how fast the mouse updates. How the mouse updates work are something like it sends new data to your computer every x hz (aka ms, in this case x is 125, or 16 ms).
The time from it takes you to move your mouse till your cursor changes is simply added on to your own reaction time, so if your reaction time was 180ms, it would actually be 180 ms + 16 ms = 196 ms, because of the delay from your mouse.

DPI doesn't matter for games that use DirectX' DirectInput, which CS does. So you can put your DPI up as high as you feel like, and it you wouldn't be affected of the negative acceleration that would happen on games that doesn't run DirectInput.

------

Credits:
- gonX @ overclock.net
- Arsenik and admin @ overclock.net - for making the text box extendable (I love you for that)
- TheSubtleKnife @ overclock.net - by forcing me to make this guide. I've wanted to do it for a long time, and I'm happy to have done it
- Sujoy @ esreality.com (link to mousereview article, link to DA article) - for providing me with results. Hope this gives a bit more visitors to you guys
- My keyboard <3

and more

I will update this over time, and if you spot any mistakes or have any questions, please PM me instead of posting in this thread. Thank you.

Edit log:
08/29/07 - 5.37PM: fixed typos
09/01/07 - 6.02PM: added lines in credits
02/11/08 - 4:51PM: fixed typos, added deathadder part
03/27/08 - 6:12PM: added Deathadder link
08/29/08 - 3:01PM: fixed some grammar - added mouseacceleration fix, added note about polling rates
10/03/08 - 9:22AM: added lots to the mousepad part, especially the 5L, since I just got that
11/22/08 - 1:05AM: removed the harbl part on mousepads, recritiscised the 5L, rewrote most of the mousepads part
11/22/08 - 1:17AM: rewrote many parts of the guide
12/02/08 - 9:14PM: I actually have no idea what I corrected here, but it's most likely the bias/random in the mousepad section that had been removed/fixed.
03/15/09 - 12:58PM: Added Q&A from v193r

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