It's been well established that I have impulse control when it comes to purchases. From socks and pens to computers and cars I just get it in my head that I want it, I do the research for the 'best', and then I wrench my hands for a bit before making the eventual purchase. Well, that's one of the things I'm trying to work on this year. I want to be a little stronger willed both in the research portion and the actual buying. One of the first real tests of this was the keyboard. And as I wrote about here, I failed that test hard. To be fair, the purchase part of the decision was already made as the keyboard needed to be replaced. But not only did I do extensive research into which keyboard I wanted, I ended up buying the exact most expensive option out there. Now comes the natural progression of having a new keyboard... wouldn't a new mouse look good next to it?
The natural answer to that is both yes and no. Yes, it would be nice and fun for a few moments to have a new mouse. It's been awhile since I bought one and I could see what's new in the mouse world. But that's exactly why I shouldn't do it. It would start up that big research wagon. Web sites, youtube videos, forums... hours of my life spent researching a piece of tech that I DO NOT NEED! To be clear, my mouse is fine. I did the excessive research when I bought it and it was the best decision at that time. And no new mouse tech has been big enough to pop the bubble of my psyche and inspired me to WANT a new mouse. I just want the fun of research and getting new tech.
And I won that argument! YAY ME! I did NOT research a new mouse. I didn't even look! I was so damned proud of myself. Of course, then I started researching cars and that took a lot of my researching itch away on its own (I'll update that later). But I'll take that as a win.
And then the motherfucking mouse broke.
Goddess Damn It! It's not a MAJOR break, but it's annoying as all hell. Before I get into what broke, what research I did, and what I eventually got, I should go into my mouse history. This won't be as extensive as my keyboard history as I don't put as much emphasis on the mouse side of that two handed gaming setup, but it's still more than "I had a mouse, then bought another one."
My first computers came with their own mice. Well... technically the Commodore 64 didn't even have a mouse, but that's the only computer I had that didn't. The Amiga 500, the Amiga 4000, and my Compaq all came with a mouse and those mice were good enough.
I got the Compaq in 1996 (I think) and built my first system in 2000 and there is just no way that Compaq mouse lasted that long. Eventually it broke because as all mice of its time as it had a ball and two rollers inside. Damn we've come a long way!
The first few mice I used were variations on the Microsoft Intellimouse. This was a good, basic, no frills mouse. At least by today's standards. I mean this had a high resolution ball and it had a scroll wheel! Oooooohhhhh!!!
Yeah, it was a mouse. I'm not even sure what it would have been compared against, although I'm sure Logitech was making mice back then. Razer made the first gaming mouse in 1999, but I know I didn't hear about them until much later. I think it was 'cheap mouse' or this one. So, I had a few of these.
When I did build my system though, I wanted the mouse to be as nice and shiny and new as the Pentium II it had. So I went with the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer. Awww Yeeeaahhhh! This baby had a LAZER!
It was also the first mouse I had with side buttons. Well... it had A side button. But still, it was slick as all get out. And with the red glow in the back you knew it was for serious computing!
Now, this is where it gets a little fuzzy. I know I had several optical mice, but I'm not sure if they were variations on this, or some other mouse. And the next mouse I remember getting was introduced in 2007, so I know there were mice in between... I just don't remember them.
So, my first real mouse was one of 'those' purchases. I did the research. Microsoft was king of mice back then and 'Gaming Mouse' marketplace was still fairly new. The mouse I ended up with, however, could easily be considered THE gaming mouse of its time. The Microsoft Sidewinder. For it's time, this was actually a really good mouse for gaming and a high quality product.
It went for around $80, had a red underglow, red accent plastic on the top, real metal buttons and a real metal scroll wheel. It had something like a 2000 dpi sensor and moved like butter. It had the now practically mandatory two thumb buttons but they were in a vertical setup. That design choice screwed me for a long time as I got used to an up and down flick of the thumb to go back and forward while viewing web pages and of course the standard now is a horizontal layout with a front and back button for... well... forward and back.
Anyway, I don't remember why or how it broke, but like all things tech it DID break. I was heartbroken to realize they no longer made it. $80 at the time was too steep of a price and the replacement at the time of my purchase was a cheaper product. The Microsoft Sidewinder X5. I won't even put up a pic as it was the same design. It kept the red underglow, but all the red plastic was now black. The metal bits were now black plastic. BUT it had that same button layout that I loved.
I don't remember having it all that long, but I do list it here on this blog. As of November 2014 it was my current mouse. If I'm remembering right, I may have had a total of three Microsoft Sidwinder mice of various versions because of that top/bottom button layout. This was the only mouse that held on to it and I didn't want to change. But change comes to us all and I had to switch things up.
Like above, my memory of when, why, and how I got these mice is a little fuzzy. The order might be wrong, but I know I had all of these mice.
And that was also its downfall. The RGB glowy goodness was nice but it required the Razer software and as I said in the keyboard post, the Razer software is trash. It crashes, it loses settings, it changes the colors... it's just not good. I know annoyance with the software is what got me to change.
My next mouse, I believe, was an attempt to reign in spending (see a trend here?). I went with Logitech as their new 'G' set of devices were supposed to be top notch gaming. Enter the Logitech G 703 Lightspeed. My first wireless mouse.
Now, I was nervous going with a wireless mouse. I'm not sure if Logitech was the first to offer this, but I know the selling point of the G 703 was the charging cable. It was also acted as a wired connection to the computer. So, imagine you're in a game and really enjoying yourself when BOOM your mouse needs to charge. With a lot of wireless mice at the time you had to stop and replace the battery or with the bigger/badder more RGBer mice, you had to plop it on the charger. Umm... and then wait. With the Logitech system, you just unplugged the USB wireless adapter from the cable and plug the cable right into the mouse. Sure, this meant you had the cable sitting on your desktop anyway, but the mouse was still wireless. No pulls or tugs until it needed charging.
The reigning in of spending was the fact that I didn't get the more expensive G 903. And for awhile, I was happy with that decision. But eventually two things happened with the G 703. I found the light to be boring and it broke. I don't remember if it was the right mouse button or the scroll wheel, but it got flakey. You'd think I could have turned it in for warranty repair as it was only six months old but like a lot of modern warranties, this one didn't even extend for a year. It was 30 days. So, instead of crying about it, I just went ahead and bought the better one... the G 903.
The G 903 was more gamery looking than the 703. It supposedly had higher end components which was my original intent, but it also had more features. More buttons, higher dpi... stuff like that. Stuff that I didn't use. It did have nice textured rubbery grips that were nice....but honestly it was just like the 703.
The G 903 lasted almost a year. Again, my memory fails me here as I don't know why I got rid of it. I think it was due to my being bored with the colors. Which in retrospect is stupid, but that's me. My next purchase was to test the waters I'd already swam in... I got another Razer Mamba.
This time it was the Razer Mamba Wireless. Now, I hear you... I didn't like the software, so why oh why would I do that again. Well, Razer introduced their new Synapse software and one thing they touted was its stability. I liked the look of the Mamba I had before, so it seemed like a good chance to redeem the company.
Fuck Razer. Synapse 3 was more complicated and even buggier than the previous version. The mouse itself was fine. I did miss the extra RGB stripes along the sides as it was less RGBy, but that software was just an absolute killer. It lasted all of 5 months and I dumped it in full working order. Again... Fuck Razer. That was the last step and I will NOT go back to them again.
One mouse that I don't list here is my Corsair. I honestly don't remember which one it was as I didn't get it on Amazon and therefore don't have the model or the date I got it. But I learned a valuable lesson as it had a thumb rest. I have the image of their current Dark Core RGB Pro, and I'm fairly sure mine was the same shape but not this exact model. Anyway, it distinctly had the thumb rest as that image shows. I think I had it all of a week as that thumb rest was an absolute deal killer. I like and need the feel of the mousepad under both my thumb and my pinky.
So after being ready to throw the Razer Mamba wireless in the trash (I actually think I gave it to my nephews, but that's the same as far as I'm concerned), I looked around the mouse spectrum and tried to find a company I hadn't used before. Corsair didn't have a mouse I loved that didn't have the thumbrest, and besides I wasn't in love with their software either. Razer was out. Logitech was boring and didn't have anything new. I looked at a couple other companies and then came upon Steel Series. I did my research and found that their Rival 650 Quantum Wireless was highly regarded. It topped several lists as one of the best mice out there.
And... it worked! It served all the mice functions just fine. IT had some extra weights so that I could weight it down (yeah, I'm the guy looking for a HEAVIER mouse, not a lighter one!), had acceptable lighting, and the software was just about perfect. My only complaint is the exact lighting control is a bit... off. There's four basic areas for the light. The logo, the scroll wheel, and the two stripes on the top/sides. I turned the stripes off as they were a little overkill and it would help the battery last longer. The logo and the wheel were both on and I simply want them to flow from one color to the next, slowly. I can get them both to do that, but they do it independently of the other. So right now as I type this, the logo is purple while the scroll wheel is green. Not perfect, but not bad.
And that's the mouse I had when the I got the Logitech G 915 keyboard. BTW, I'm still loving the keyboard. It's an absolute blast to type on. It lays flat and doesn't need any kind of wrist rest. I move it around to make my hands comfortable and dont' worry about the cable and only had to charge it twice since getting it six weeks ago. The software is a delight to use even though the lighting options are fairly limited. It just slowly cycles through the colors, but not in any rainbow pattern. All the keys are purple and over a few seconds they shift to blue, then green, then yellow, then... on and on. And the sound of these tiny keys is great. They're not as loud as the Cherry MX Blues that the Corsair keyboard had, but they're still distinctly clicky and active.
Anyway, so why did I write this post? Why did I move away from the Steel Series Rival? A small rubber piece on the right hand side where my ring finger and pinky sit came unglued. I have NO idea how this could have happened. It's like it melted as the glue has spread all around. Every time I touch the damned thing I get some of it on my fingers. And while I might be able to tolerate some broken bits on it, this is entirely unacceptable. I shouldn't feel dirty when I use the mouse.
So I felt like I was starting over. It'd been almost two years since I looked into mice. Corsair hadn't changed their software and didn't have any mice that wowed me. Fuck Razer. Microsoft has an entirely too business feel to their mice. I looked at some other brands but they either had quality control issues or some other issue that handicapped them in my opinion. And honestly, I was afraid of the software experience again. I already have the Logitech G software for the keyboard and even if I ditch the Steel Series mouse, I have a steel series headset that locks me to that software. A quick peek at Steel Series showed me that they hadn't offered anything new since the Rival 650, so if I stayed with them, I'd literally be staying with the same mouse.
That's not a bad thing though. Two years without complaint? That's worth something.
Then I looked at Logitech. For the most part they've remained the same. Their wireless options in their G line break down like this:
- G 502
- G 703
- G 903
- G Pro
- G Pro X
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edit from... sigh... a few hours later
When I finished up this post I was happy enough to be done. I'd wait until tomorrow for the new mouse and wait until I saw the 'just right' mousepad. I then stepped away from the computer, showered, did a little shopping, came home, un packed everything, ate lunch, cleaned up, sat down at the computer and EWWW THE GLUE IS EVEN WORSE FEELING NOW!!!!
It took exactly that long to decide it's worth going to Best Buy and picking up the damned mouse locally. I know, I should have just got it when I was out the first time but that was a timed picking up of groceries that mom bought (she got the second dose of the vaccine yesterday and feels like shit today).
Oh, and before I took off I watched a couple youtube videos and realized one of the tech guys I like to watch sells mousepads. They're a bit more expensive than cheapo Amazon branded mousepads, but it goes to help support him so I'm on board. I have no idea how long that will take to ship, but it'll be here soon enough.
So, NOW this is done. :)
Fuck Razer
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