** TwsT's Guide to Buying a new Mouse and Price Comparison List **

Soldato
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Stoke on Toast
The List is Here for those who don't want to read it all and would just like to see the list and it's respective prices.

First off this guide started off as a price point list to try and lower the amount of "spec me a mouse for £XX " because buying a mouse is a preferential thing and whilst we can all give our opinions on which mouse is the best, we aren't you, we don't have your hand, or your play style.

What happened however as I began putting this together explaining a few simple differences in grip style. I’ve learned rather a lot about mice and discovered there were many differences even I have been a bit ignorant of. So having beat out some of the jargon I’ve put this simple article together featuring the core details that will hopefully allow you to make a more informed decision on the mouse you purchase.

Note If there are any mistakes please let me know or even additions I’m happy to amend and discuss and always willing to learn from people who may be more informed on some of this than I am.


So before I start listing mice and their respective price points a few things to cover:-

Grip style for most of us this isn't an issue as the average user uses the Palm grip style but there are other types of grip. Fingertip and Claw. I won’t discuss the benefits of each grip type as I don’t know them I am a palm grip user.

Palm Grip:-
This is as I've previously said the most common grip type. With the whole palm and fingers being in contact with the surface of the mouse. These mice have a high arch and ergonomic design to allow for a comfortable hold and the middle and index finger to be in complete contact with the top of the mouse.
jXxxZHll.jpg

Claw Grip:-
Called as such because the user will arch his hand into a claw the main difference between the claw grip and the palm grip is that the finger tips and the pit of the hand that come into contact with the mouse. A suitable mouse for this style of grip will have a high lipped edges and a profile so the
mouse can be manipulated without accidently hitting the side buttons.
vW952iYl.jpg

Some mice that suit Claw style grip here

Fingertip Grip:-
A deviation of the claw grip where only the fingertips come into contact with the mouse and is generally suited to smaller low profile mice.

Wired or Wireless:
As the technology gets better the differences between the two are dropping. A wireless gaming mouse is deemed to respond slower as it has to do an extra thing to get the data to the computer. Often wireless mice of the past would use lower powered laser engines which are inferior to optical ones. Finally the big killer Battery power. This is all changing as technology advances as long as you remember to charge the mouse you shouldn't have any problem with the battery running out on you and many mice now come with additional wired cable for those longer gaming sessions which may run the mouse battery down. Although the Wireless mice that compete with the wired ones at the high level are often quite pricey.


Polling rate:
The Polling rate matters, it's how often the mouse is communicating with the computer 125hz is 125 times a second which is 8ms 1000hz is 1000 times a second which is 1ms We know it's mattered because back in the day people used to overclock their intelli mouse 3.0 to get a better polling rate out of it to improve its performance. After using a 1000 Hz mouse for a period of time you will notice the drop back to a 125 Hz polling rate mouse just as you would notice the drop from 120 Hz back down to 60/65 Hz on a monitor.


Laser vs Optical:-
A Laser or a LED light up a small surface a little camera takes pictures of the surfaces which is illuminated by a light source and compares them to determine the tracking. Laser mice on the whole track better on hard mouse mats than on fabric ones and optical the other way round.
This is not really a debate I want to have as Laser technology has improved and the difference is marginal as many people in this section of the forum will tell you when they claim their mouse is the best and you will find many prefer laser and many prefer optical.
Higher DPI mice tend to be more suited to laser sensors and lower sense gaming tends to favour optical sensors. This comes about with things like lift off something you are much more likely to do at lower sense than higher sense. Some lasers will track the mouse’s movement even after it has been lifted off the mouse mat although as previously stated this difference isn't as large as it used to be.
A new Doppler shift sensor detects the different wavelength of the reflected laser beam something I would imagine we will see more of in the future only a few mice at the moment are using this sensor.

DPI or Dots Per Inch
The number of dots per inch that can be counted or in simpler terms the sensitivity of your mouse. A misconception that has been used by Manufacturers for a while to sell their mice is that DPI = Accuracy it doesn't. A great example is the Microsoft Intelli mouse with 400 DPI Widely used by gamers in the competitive CSS and CS1.6 scene for years even after much higher DPI mice came to light. So if it's not accuracy what is it? It is exactly what it says the number of dots it can count per inch moved. at 6200 DPI you would have to move your mouse considerably less at default windows settings to cover the screen.

So what DPI is right for you a simple way to look at it for FPS gaming is how much you want to move your mouse to turn a full 360 degrees.

Take the normal resolution used today 1920 * 1080
1920 * 4 = 7680 pixels

High sensitivity mouse movement of say 0.1m or 4" for a full 360 = 1920 DPI

Medium sensitivity mouse movement of say 0.25m or 10" for a full 360 = 768 DPI

Low Sensitivity mouse movement of say 0.5m or 20" for full 360 = 384 DPI

Ultimately it boils down to how you set your game up. and how you play. Back on the old mouse ball days My sensitivity in CSS was 20 when I bought my first laser mouse with 4800 DPI or something ridiculous I lowered my in game sensitivity to 1.5 and used approx 1600 DPI as I got more into CSS I lowered it even more and now use around 0.7 in game sensitivity with Windows pointer speed at 6/11 (1) and a DPI of 1200 (I think).

Windows Mouse pointer speed options::-
Here is the list of the pointer speed settings in windows which also effect your mouse movement.

1. 0.03125
2. 0.0625
3. 0.25
4. 0.5
5. 0.75
6. 1.
7. 1.5
8. 2.
9. 2.5
10. 3.
11. 3.5

Most people use 6/11(1) but you could if you liked double your DPI and use 3/11 (0.25) and not notice much difference. So there's far too much to think about in my opinion and these 8000 + DPI mice are insane. Even on 4K resolution you would need a max of 4000 dpi for high sensitivity gaming at normal windows mouse speeds. But if you use lower mouse pointer settings you can justify using a crazy high dpi whether it will have a positive or negative effect on your game only you will know.



Mouse Prediction or Angle Snapping:
This is a feature where the mouse uses an algorithm to attempt to try and predict the mouse’s movement. In the picture below you will see some red and blue lines. The blue were done with a mouse that doesn't have prediction and in the Red are a mouse using prediction.

I've done it so the top line was quickly the second was average and the third was slow.

ej7rwUa.png

As you can see the red lines are almost perfectly straight which is bad if you are trying to track a head on Call of duty or Counterstrike but obviously not as bad in an RTS or RPG MOBA style game like DOTA 2 and League of Legends.


Thanks so Woll3 a user on Overclock.net and other members of that forum. Here is a known list of mice with prediction than can be turned off or ships with it off at default.
If you are unsure though you can just open paint and flick the mouse across the page quickly if it's straight you have prediction enabled.


Angle Snapping and Mice with Prediction
CMStorm Spawn Can switch ON or OFF in driver.
CMStorm Recon Ships with Angle Snapping OFF
Logitech G400 Shipped with Angle Snapping ON. Ships with Angle Snapping OFF after PID 13333. Rare to find one with Angle snapping ON as of 7/28/2012
MadCatz R.A.T. 3 Ships With Angle Snapping OFF
Razer Abyssus Ships with Angle Snapping OFF
Razer Deathadder 3G Shipped with Angle Snapping ON. Can disable or enable via firmware flash. Latest versions: 1.39 (OFF) and 1.40 (ON)
Razer Deathadder 3.5G Ships with Angle Snapping OFF
Razer Deathadder 4G Ships with Angle Snapping OFF
Roccat Savu Ships with Angle Snapping OFF
Zowie EC eVo Ships with Angle Snapping OFF
Zowie AM Ships with Angle Snapping OFF

Acceleration:
Assuming most of you have disabled acceleration in windows as it is a modification where the mouse cursor speeds up as the mouse is moved more. Something largely gamers will not want.
That said Many mice come with wild claims of acceleration of 50g that is 500 meters per second something that you will most likely never need (or be able to read as accurate) and thus it is a pointless marketing gimmick.
 
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Soldato
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An updated list of the Gaming mice we sell Will Add the Wireless ones shortly

Sub £30 Gaming Mice
"]KB-004-ZA"] Zalman ZM-GM1 6000 DPI Laser Gaming Mouse - Black/Blue £22.99
Gigabyte Force M7 Thor Gaming Mouse £22.99
Gigabyte Force M9 Optical Gaming Mouse £22.99
Corsair Raptor LM3 Gaming Mouse (CH-9000038-EU) £24.95
Ozone Xenon Gaming Mouse - Red £24.98
Ozone Xenon Gaming Mouse - White £24.98
SPEEDLINK PRIME Gaming Mouse Red £25.49
Asus ROG GX850 5000DPI Gaming Mouse £29.99


Sub £40 Gaming Mice
Corsair Raptor M30 Gaming Mouse (CH-9000042-EU) £32.99
Gigabyte Aire M93 Ice Gaming Mouse £34.99
Asus ROG GX1000 Gaming Mouse Silver £39.95
Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T.3 3500 DPI Gaming Mouse £39.95
Ozone Neon Laser Gaming Mouse - White £39.95
Ozone Neon Laser Gaming Mouse - Red £39.95
Ozone Neon Laser Gaming Mouse - Blue £39.95
OZONE Neon Laser Gaming Mouse - Black £39.95
CM Storm Mizar Gaming Mouse - Optical £39.95
SteelSeries Kinzu V2 3200 DPI Gaming Mouse - Blue (62041) £39.95
CM Storm Recon 4000 DPI Gaming Mouse £39.98




Sub £50 Gaming Mice
Asus Echelon Gaming Mouse £41.99
SteelSeries Kana Mouse V2 - Black / Orange (62261) £42.95
SteelSeries Kana Mouse V2 - White / Orange (62262) £42.95
SPEEDLINK Kudos RS Gaming Mouse - Red/Black £43.99
Shogun Bros Ballista MK-1 8200 DPI Pro Gaming Mouse £44.99
CM Storm Sentinel Advance II 8200 DPI Gaming Mouse £44.99
Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500 DPI Xtreme Precision Left Handed Edition Gaming Mouse - Retail £44.99
Asus Strix Claw Gaming Mouse £46.99
EVGA X10 TorQ Laser Gaming Mouse £49.99
Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T.5 5600 DPI Gaming Mouse £49.99
Roccat Kone+ 6000 DPI Max Customization Gaming Mouse £49.99
Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T.5 5600 DPI Gaming Mouse - White £49.99
Zalman ZM-GM4 Knossos Gaming Mouse £49.99
Roccat Kone Pure Core Performance Gaming Mouse - Hellfire Red £49.99
Zowie AM-FG 2300 DPI Optical Pro Gaming Mouse - White £49.99
Zowie FK1 High Performance Gaming Mouse £49.99
Zowie FK2 High Performance Gaming Mouse £49.99
Zowie EC1-A High Performance Gaming Mouse £49.99
Zowie EC2-A High Performance Gaming Mouse £49.99
Corsair Gaming CG SABRE Optical RGB, 6400 DPI Optical Mouse, 3 zone RGB, Black (CH-9000056-EU) £49.99
Logitech G402 Hyperion Fury Ultra-Fast FPS Gaming Mouse (910-004068) £49.99


Sub £60 Gaming Mice
Zowie AM-FG 2300 DPI Optical Pro Gaming Mouse - White £51.95
Zowie EC2 eVo CL Pro-Gaming Mouse £51.95
SteelSeries Rival Optical 6500DPI Gaming Mouse - Black (62271) £51.95
SteelSeries Rival Optical 6500DPI Gaming Mouse - White (62278) £51.95
Mionix Avior 7000 Optical Gaming Mouse £54.95
Mionix Naos 7000 Optical Gaming Mouse £54.95
Roccat Kone Pure Core Performance Gaming Mouse - Desert Strike £54.95
Gigabyte Krypton Dual Chassis Gaming Mouse - Black/Blue 45.82 £54.98
Mad Catz R.A.T. Tournament Edition Gaming Mouse - Matte Black £56.99
Roccat Kone Pure Optical Gaming Mouse- Camo Charge £56.99
Roccat Kone Pure Optical Gaming Mouse - Naval Storm £56.99
Thermaltake Level 10 M 8200 DPI Gaming Mouse - Green £59.99
Corsair Gaming CGM M65 RGB, 8200 DPI Laser Mouse, 3-zone RGB, Black (CH-9000070-EU) £59.99
Corsair Gaming CG SABRE Laser RGB, 8200 DPI Optical Mouse, 3 zone RGB, Black (CH-9000090-EU) £59.99
Razer Naga Hex Expert Action-RPG/MOBA Gaming Mouse - Wraith Red Edition £59.99

Gaming Mice that are £60 and over.
Razer Taipan 8200 DPI Expert Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse £61.99
Razer DeathAdder 2013 6400 DPI Essential Ergonomic Gaming Mouse £62.99
Asus ROG GX1000 Gaming Mouse - Black £64.99
Mionix Avior 'SK Gaming' Professional Gaming Mouse - FREE SK GAMING SURFACE WORTH £25 £64.99
Asus ROG Gladius FPS Gaming Mouse £64.99
Razer Imperator 2012 Expert Ergonomic Gaming Mouse £64.99
Razer Orochi Elite 6400 DPI Notebook Gaming Mouse £64.99
Razer DeathAdder Chroma 5 Button USB Gaming Mouse 10000DPI - Black £64.99
Corsair M95 Performance MMO/RTS Laser Gaming Mouse - Arctic White (CH-9000026-EU) £66.95
Corsair M95 Performance MMO/RTS Laser Gaming Mouse - Gun Metal Black (CH-9000025-EU) £66.95
Mad Catz M.M.O. Tournament Edition Gaming Mouse - Matte Black £69.95
SteelSeries Sensei Pro Laser Gaming Mouse (62150) £69.95
Razer Naga 2014 Expert MMO Gaming Mouse £69.95
Razer Naga 2014 Left-Handed Edition Expert MMO Gaming Mouse £69.95
Razer Taipan 8200 DPI Expert Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse - White £69.95
EVGA X10 TorQ Laser Gaming Mouse - Carbon £69.98
Logitech G502 Proteus Core Tunable Gaming Mouse (910-004076) £69.99
Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse (910-003823) £69.99
Roccat Tyon Multi-Button 8200dpi Laser R3 Sensor USB Gaming Mouse, 1.8m, Black (ROC-11-850) £89.99
Logitech G700s Gaming Mouse (910-003423) £89.99


Wireless
US WT415 Wireless Mouse - Black £19.99
ASUS WT415 Wireless Mouse - Red £17.99
ASUS WT415 Wireless Mouse - Silver £19.99
ASUS WT415 Wireless Mouse - White £17.99
Gigabyte Aire M93 Ice Gaming Mouse £34.99
Gigabyte ECO500 1600 DPI Wireless Mouse - Black/Silver £19.99
Gigabyte ECO600 1600DPI Wireless Gaming Mouse - Black £18.95
Gigabyte Force M9 2000 DPI Wireless Optical Mouse - Black £29.99
Gigabyte Force M9 Ice Wireless Laser Mouse - Black £34.99
Gigabyte Force M9 Optical Gaming Mouse £22.99
Gigabyte M7700 Wireless Laser Mouse - Black £17.99
Gigabyte M7700B Bluetooth Mouse £16.99
Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 for Business 5SH-00005 £21.95
Razer Mamba 2012 4G 6400 DPI Wireless Mouse £107.99
Razer Naga Epic Elite Wireless MMO 5600DPI Gaming Mouse £114.95
Razer Ouroboros 8200 DPI Elite Ambidextrous Wireless Gaming Mouse £106.99
SteelSeries Sensei Gaming Mouse Wireless (62250) £134.99
Zalman ZM-M500WL 3000 DPI Wireless Optical Mouse £17.99
 
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Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2008
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Lisburn, Northern Ireland
I've got a Logitech MX518 which is failing.

I need a good wired gaming mouse for under 40 quid. Having issues with trying to get some
proper clued up comments on it without some kids starting an argument trying to justify their purchase.
Anyone able to give me a decent recommendation for my price range?


Also ...in English...what's doppler shift?
 
Associate
Joined
13 Jun 2014
Posts
128
Fantastic list! Well played fella! I'm looking into a new mouse at the mo! Tempted by wireless!

I've actually got a superb roccat kone (+). But having moved away from my alienware, i dont need all the flashy LED's now! I really like the look of the mad catz! i'm a bit dissapointed with the number of keys on the Razer mice. I play fps, but its nice to have some macros set up!
 

IC3

IC3

Soldato
Joined
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Posts
9,830
Awesome guide and it should help a lot of people who don't want to spend hours researching staff. But you could add pictures of other grips mentioned previously, it would be awesome if you wrote what grip the listed mouses are best for, but not everything at one go. I think you should also mention the hand size, some of the mouses might be too small/big for the others. I'll leave a picture of my hand next to G400 and IE 3.0, my hand is average size (19cm from middle finger to the base)
NCb2EN8l.jpg

TwsT said:
Palm Grip:-
These mice have a high arch...
I need to disagree with this statement, G700 has a high arch as most of the logitech mouses do strangely. But mouses such as Steelseries Ikari (its poo don't buy this mouse...), Miniox Naos or Qpad 5k have a lower arch... well at least I get this feeling and it might be just an illusion.

Edit

Heres an example of g400 vs ikari, I've also wanted to show the difference between IE 3.0, but on the picture you couldn't tell even though you could see the difference with your own eyes.

OE584lvl.jpg.png
UgBgyeWl.jpg.png
p.s next time I'll clean the mouses before I'll do a picture, they aren't that dirty thou... its actually the paint comming off :p
 
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Soldato
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they have a arch that rises up more that claw Grip designed mice the point is it rises into your palm giving your palm the control.

only real claw gripper mice are the RAT's everything else is really a palm grip mouse that can be used for claw

There are some palm mice that are rubbish for claw grip too.

Maybe context isn't clear but the point is there is an arch you can feel it in your palm it's what provides the contor for control.
 

IC3

IC3

Soldato
Joined
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Posts
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they have a arch that rises up more that claw Grip designed mice the point is it rises into your palm giving your palm the control.

only real claw gripper mice are the RAT's everything else is really a palm grip mouse that can be used for claw

There are some palm mice that are rubbish for claw grip too.

Maybe context isn't clear but the point is there is an arch you can feel it in your palm it's what provides the contor for control.

True, I re-read your tutorial and come to a conclusion that Mionix Naos with the ergonomics just like my old Ikari will be the perfect mouse for me. ;)
 
Soldato
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yeah I have a Zowie EC1 and EC2 I can't work out which i prefer I think it's the EC1

Currently using a mionix Sargas mouse mat at work which i really like it's right up there with the QCK Fnatic I use at home.

I will at some point do a mouse mat guide as there is some pretty usefull information that I've gained from playing.

Even now I have like 10 mouse mats at home.

Suppose there is more expensive things to collect ha :D
 

IC3

IC3

Soldato
Joined
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Posts
9,830
yeah I have a Zowie EC1 and EC2 I can't work out which i prefer I think it's the EC1

Currently using a mionix Sargas mouse mat at work which i really like it's right up there with the QCK Fnatic I use at home.

I will at some point do a mouse mat guide as there is some pretty usefull information that I've gained from playing.

Even now I have like 10 mouse mats at home.

Suppose there is more expensive things to collect ha :D

You're really the only person who can say which mouse suits you best, others can only tell you the props and cons. For me the ergonomics of Mionix Naos, Steelseries Ikari or Qpadk 5k soo far suited me bestly, but I haven't had a chance to check mouse like sensei, zowie fk1 or ec1.

I'm using OCUK XXL mousemat which is pretty much like the QCK without any graphics, if someone put a bandanna on my eyes and put both at front of me, I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference by touching it.

Mouse mats are as important as the mouse itself, especially when you're using laser mouse. Still collecting mouse mats is better than changing the GPU every gen for small gains, which we can only really see on benchmarks. :p
 
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Associate
Joined
18 Jun 2014
Posts
144
Like a few people have mentioned definitely checkout the Mionix Naos, I'm running it after being a longtime Revolution MX user and am not looking back. Also tried the Ikari and 5K, but neither are quite as ergonomically comfortable for sustained periods of use.
 
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