Intro - The Razer brand of mice is actually new to me. I recently purchased the current mouse in this review, and I'll have to say I am impressed so far. To see some pictures, visit Razer's site here.
Looks - The looks of Razer mice are great I think. They fit the game style without much trouble with bright lights and aggressive design. The cord is normal looking, yet somehow designed differently than your off-the-shelf mouse because the design is supposed to be tangle free. I can see how, because the cord is somewhat more rigid than a typical mouse cord, similar to the Logitech G5 but without the braiding (which I thought was a nice touch on the G5). All in all I would say the looks of this mouse are more "gamey" than any I have used before.
Shape - I would classify the Razer Diamondback as a twitchy, finger-style mouse and not a palmer, although I think it is possible to be palmed with some comfort. The mouse is more of an either hand design, so lefties and righties can use it equally depending on how they setup their buttons.
The design is flatter than most mice. It reminds me of the old Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer somewhat. I've noticed the new Death Adder has gone to that shape somewhat - but that is for another review. The Diamondback is low profile yet long, so it makes it a little difficult to get used to at first. It is longer than the Logitech G3, but maybe slightly shorter than the G5. Almost an in-between mouse, but nowhere near the hight of the back of the G5. My hand actually hurt somewhat on the first few uses because I was not used to it (the pinky finger didn't really have anywhere to go). I ended up holding the mouse more naturally after using it for a couple of hours, and more straight than I would most mice.
Performance - I have only had the mouse a few days, and most of that time has been spent tinkering with it instead of actually using it until yesterday. I had a couple of software issues that I'll talk about later. The mouse actually seemed to perform best on the HID Windows driver, but I always prefer to use the driver that the manufacturer provides instead as it always utilizes the full features in the hardware.
The mouse movement was great once I got accustomed to it. It was very twitchy at first and I had to spend at least an hour total getting my sensitivity set to a comfortable level. I'd adjust it, feel like it was too fast, move it some, feel like it was too slow, and volley that back and forth until I finally got a feel for it. It was set at 1600 DPI without the Razer driver, which I liked. This let me worry only with adjusting the sensitivity in Windows and nothing else. However I was missing features that were really cool (more on that later).
The Diamondback is very precise when you get the hang of it. The feel of the buttons is very good. They are rubberized and have a slight indentation where Razer wants your fingers to go. For the most part they are right and it feels comfortable. The one issue I had with it was the right side of the mouse is setup like it is supposed to be the left side for a left-hand user, if that makes any sense. It definitely feels more like a left-hand thumb should be going there and not a right-hand pinky. However I did get used to this, and keeping in mind that it is a left or right hand mouse, this makes sense.
I played WoW with it, and that's all I've had a chance to play so far. Fortunately I feel like WoW tests mouse precision, as I'm picky about where I click a button. I try to click dead center so that I don't really have a chance to miss what I'm going for, and the Diamondback was spot on when I got used to it. I have a wide screen LCD monitor, and moving it from one side to another took some getting used to, but in the end I think I ended up getting pretty used to it. WoW has a lot of screen coverage and lots of opportunity to misclick if you are in a hurry.
The thumb buttons on the mouse are a little hard to reach, at least compared to Logitech's on the G3 and G5. They are more difficult to press as well (I assume this is to prevent accidental clicks). It took some getting used to, but after a couple of hours use I was used to the firmness of the buttons and the location, and rarely reached up too far (as they seem further back than I'm used to). One plus is that the G5 and G3 have one side button, and the Diamondback has two buttons per side.
Software - The software has presented some issues for me, although I'm not sure entirely why. I was using 6.0 at first, then updated from Razerzone.com and got 6.02. That seemed to help with any issues I had previously had, however I did have a random hard reboot occur that I feel had to have come from some conflict with the Razer software, although I not have been running on a clean reboot either (to its credit). Lots of adjustment options are available, which I like. Independent axis sensitivity adjustments were readily available, mouse acceleration (which I left off), and finally, the on the fly sensitivity adjustment.
The on the fly adjustment seemed to me to be Razer's biggest feature on this software, and I found it better than Logitech's in the way that instead of adjusting the DPI of the mouse incrementally, it instead adjusts the slider in the Razer software, therefore giving you 20 different sensitivity settings. So you could leave you mouse on 1600 DPI with the Razer software, press a thumb button to toggle the scroll wheel to act as your sensitivity setting, and roll it up and down in 0.5 increments from 1 to 10. It's like a quick way to slide your mouse adjustment bar without ever leaving what you are doing, instead of changing the entire mouse's DPI to a set increment. To me this makes more sense and allows the user to make finer adjustments that are more intuitive. I think this is the best feature in mouse software that I have seen in a while. I wish all mice had that feature!
Conclusion - 9/10. Razer Diamondback is a proven gaming mouse, as there are plenty of gamers out there who use it. I would guess more are Logitech G5 fans, but I could be wrong. On NewEgg.com alone there are over 900 reviews on the G5 at the time of this review. Anyhow, the Diamondback is a good mouse, and easily a good gaming mouse. The main thing would be to make sure it fits your hand, as I found it a little hard to get used to. Granted it didn't take too long, but I still wouldn't say it is as comfortable as the G3, which shares a similarly small and flat design.
The software feature concerning the on the fly mouse speed adjustment makes the mouse incredible for games or any other application, or if you just want a quick way to adjust the slider without having to alt-tab out and change the setting. Aside from some initial glitches, I believe their mouse software for the most part is sound. All around I'd say if the Diamondback fits your hand, you'll find it a great mouse to game with for as long as you need to.
-Rav
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Logitech G3 Laser Gaming mouse
Intro - The G3 mouse by Logitech is basically a G5 with a different mold. Logitech recognizes that some people like the old MX300 and Click! style of mouse more than the MX500 style. They also realized that people want the same features in a mouse of that shape that the G5 has. Hence the G3 was born.
To take a look, visit Logitech here.
Looks - Overall it's a slick looking mouse. No fancy lights or anything though, which to some is good, some it isn't. Personally I don't mind one way or another, however! There is one thing I dislike about the G3, and that is if you use DPI adjustment (which it does have, similarly to the G5) you won't know what sensitivity you are currently set to until you move the mouse. Personally I dislike this, as I like looking at the G5 and seeing the indicator light that says what DPI I am set to before I even move the mouse to find out. With the G3, there is a single button on the top of the mouse back that you press one time to toggle through the sensitivity settings that either you have setup in the Setpoint software, or that it uses built-in through the regular Windows HID driver. To me this isn't really an issue as I lock my mice out at 2000dpi anyway and just adjust the slider to get good speed feedback. To someone who swaps DPI often, this could be an issue if you're used to seeing some sort of feedback for a DPI switch. Overall the two tone look is good, and it's a fairly stylish mouse.
Shape - For me, this is a great shaped mouse. I'm not a "palmer", I am the twitchy fingered type. That is who this mouse is setup for. If you like to palm mice, go with the G5, because frankly the G3 doesn't have a really ergonomic shape. It is designed to be twitched around, not casually sweeped from side to side like you're in Word all day (even though it performs well in Windows). The fit of it to my hand is great, and the mouse shortly becomes an extension of what I'm doing on the computer without my really having to think about it. That lets me know it's a good mouse, because I practically forget I'm using it, and I'm just doing what I need to do without any interruption or misclicks.
Performance - I've used the mouse in WoW, Starcraft, Doom 3 and Quake 4. It has performed very well in all games. All I had to do was tweak my setting in the games that didn't directly use the Setpoint setup, and I was off and going without much thought. The main buttons click very solidly and firmly. The only gripe I have had(and others have had from different reviews I have seen) is the side buttons. However, keep in mind this is an abidextrous mouse, so some tailoring is required through the Setpoint software. Like most, I basically turn off the right side button as I find it can be easily clicked by accident. I basically use 3 buttons on the mouse - the left and right main buttons, and the left side button. That's all I use on any mouse really, so that fits the bill for me. I imagine a left handed user would possibly be turning the left side button off in the same manner.
Pointer accuracy is great. The mouse is very smooth on screen, and goes where I want it to go. As I said, for me it basically becomes an extension of my brain for what I want the computer to do.
Software - The Setpoint software seems to be maturing very well. I have had few issues with it. One issue was a flickering mouse cursor in WoW, and when alt-tabbing out of the game the mouse would dissapear completely in the Windows environment. This could be due to some confliction on my own machine, as I never have had an issue with Setpoint in the past with this (even though a friend of mine told me the same thing happened to him, but with a G5 - go figure). Aside from this, the software has worked well for me. I have to say though, I basically disable the Game Settings because I like my mouse having the controls being adjusted for the game I'm playing manually instead of automatically. Therefore I turn the auto adjustment of Game Settings off and do it in the game I'm playing manually. This basically cuts out the whole Profiling section of Setpoint, which I feel is a big part of the software. So, I can't give the software a full rating until I test this out at some point. I do however like letting Setpoint control the pointer instead of Windows, so I set it to SetPoint Implementation and go from there.
Conclusion - 9/10. For me, this is a great mouse that I could be happy with if need be. Being that I'm always interested in trying new mice, I will use it until the next thing comes in. It is possible that I will be going back to it unless I find something truly worth sticking with. It could use some DPI lights, which would make me more likely to use the adjustable DPI feature, even though I find little use for that generally, even in FPS games.
-Rav
To take a look, visit Logitech here.
Looks - Overall it's a slick looking mouse. No fancy lights or anything though, which to some is good, some it isn't. Personally I don't mind one way or another, however! There is one thing I dislike about the G3, and that is if you use DPI adjustment (which it does have, similarly to the G5) you won't know what sensitivity you are currently set to until you move the mouse. Personally I dislike this, as I like looking at the G5 and seeing the indicator light that says what DPI I am set to before I even move the mouse to find out. With the G3, there is a single button on the top of the mouse back that you press one time to toggle through the sensitivity settings that either you have setup in the Setpoint software, or that it uses built-in through the regular Windows HID driver. To me this isn't really an issue as I lock my mice out at 2000dpi anyway and just adjust the slider to get good speed feedback. To someone who swaps DPI often, this could be an issue if you're used to seeing some sort of feedback for a DPI switch. Overall the two tone look is good, and it's a fairly stylish mouse.
Shape - For me, this is a great shaped mouse. I'm not a "palmer", I am the twitchy fingered type. That is who this mouse is setup for. If you like to palm mice, go with the G5, because frankly the G3 doesn't have a really ergonomic shape. It is designed to be twitched around, not casually sweeped from side to side like you're in Word all day (even though it performs well in Windows). The fit of it to my hand is great, and the mouse shortly becomes an extension of what I'm doing on the computer without my really having to think about it. That lets me know it's a good mouse, because I practically forget I'm using it, and I'm just doing what I need to do without any interruption or misclicks.
Performance - I've used the mouse in WoW, Starcraft, Doom 3 and Quake 4. It has performed very well in all games. All I had to do was tweak my setting in the games that didn't directly use the Setpoint setup, and I was off and going without much thought. The main buttons click very solidly and firmly. The only gripe I have had(and others have had from different reviews I have seen) is the side buttons. However, keep in mind this is an abidextrous mouse, so some tailoring is required through the Setpoint software. Like most, I basically turn off the right side button as I find it can be easily clicked by accident. I basically use 3 buttons on the mouse - the left and right main buttons, and the left side button. That's all I use on any mouse really, so that fits the bill for me. I imagine a left handed user would possibly be turning the left side button off in the same manner.
Pointer accuracy is great. The mouse is very smooth on screen, and goes where I want it to go. As I said, for me it basically becomes an extension of my brain for what I want the computer to do.
Software - The Setpoint software seems to be maturing very well. I have had few issues with it. One issue was a flickering mouse cursor in WoW, and when alt-tabbing out of the game the mouse would dissapear completely in the Windows environment. This could be due to some confliction on my own machine, as I never have had an issue with Setpoint in the past with this (even though a friend of mine told me the same thing happened to him, but with a G5 - go figure). Aside from this, the software has worked well for me. I have to say though, I basically disable the Game Settings because I like my mouse having the controls being adjusted for the game I'm playing manually instead of automatically. Therefore I turn the auto adjustment of Game Settings off and do it in the game I'm playing manually. This basically cuts out the whole Profiling section of Setpoint, which I feel is a big part of the software. So, I can't give the software a full rating until I test this out at some point. I do however like letting Setpoint control the pointer instead of Windows, so I set it to SetPoint Implementation and go from there.
Conclusion - 9/10. For me, this is a great mouse that I could be happy with if need be. Being that I'm always interested in trying new mice, I will use it until the next thing comes in. It is possible that I will be going back to it unless I find something truly worth sticking with. It could use some DPI lights, which would make me more likely to use the adjustable DPI feature, even though I find little use for that generally, even in FPS games.
-Rav
Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse
To get it started off right, I'll link you to the mouse from the manufacturer's site.
That is the Logitech G5 laser mouse. I have probably used it the longest of any gaming mouse that I've owned (or is it pwned?). I always want the best precision possible out of a mouse. Some people don't care that a mouse is moving with a report/polling rate of 60, or that it moves in stair-like jaggies across their screen. I would probably die if I had to use a mouse like that.
The G5 is an excellent mouse. One of the features they advertise heavily of this mouse is the ability to adjust the sensitivity on the fly. You can either plug it in, not use the Logitech mouse software and get 3 built-in sensitivities, or you can install the software and get 5 custom sensitivities.
As an avid gamer (I play WoW almost exclusively now, although I was mostly a first-person shooter player before that), I simply do not use this feature at all. Having the option to use it basically makes me get out-of-whack with how my mouse moves and feels to me, therefore I get annoyed with the sensitivity being moved around. I'm a "one sensitivity setting" kind of guy.
My solution? Set the mouse to the middle setting in the Logitech software (Setpoint) to 2000 dpi, turn the other settings completely off, and adjust the mouse cursor speed (slider adjustment) in Setpoint so that 2000 dpi is usable for me. I basically never touch the sensitivity buttons ever again. This way I'm using the mouse at its highest DPI setting and getting the full benefit of it without having to get used to different sensitivities all the time.
For some people this doesn't work at all. My girlfriend uses multiple sensitivities. She plays WoW exclusively, and to me WoW isn't a game where you would swap sensitivities often. It is all in how you play though - depending on what character she is playing she might be using different sensitivities (ranged vs melee). She plays almost exclusively with the mouse also, so she is moving her character with the mouse, point at the buttons, twisting her view, and anything you can imagine all with the mouse. I'm a half & half user, so I use the keyboard and mouse fairly equally with a tilt towards the mouse for clicking the action buttons.
Now for one of the most important factors (at least for me): Shape! The G5 has an "ok" shape for my hands. Technically I prefer flatter mice. I have used the G5 shape for a long while now, as I had an MX500 and MX510. I always liked those, but they didn't quite fit exactly like I wanted. They are "palming" mice. What I mean by this is you rest your whole hand on the mouse, and it fits. Your fingers fit the slots, the buttons line up like they are supposed to, and ta-da, that's that. However, for someone like me, that doesn't work as well because I do not palm mice. I am a finger user, not a hand & arm user. I generally park the arm and move the mouse with my wrist and fingers, touching it with the palm of my hand on rare occasions. It might be weird, but it's how I use it.
Have I tried palming a mouse? Yes. Can I get used to it? I haven't yet. So as far as shape goes, the G5 is tolerable, but not perfect for me. I have an idea that the majority of users "palm" though, so in that aspect I'd have to rate it a 7/10 on hand fitment & shape for myself and probabaly a 10/10 for palming users.
Performance - no doubt, one of (if not the best) performing mice out there right now. Genuine hardware DPI of up to 2000, laser accuracy for even finicky wood-grain surfaces, and smooth as silk with the cursor. Also the slick feet on the bottom seem to be slick on almost any surface I have tried them on. I've used the mouse in WoW, CounterStrike Source, Doom 3, Quake 4, Serious Sam games, and more. It has performed very well with no hitching and was very precise and easy to get used to, even though it isn't a perfect fit for me. At the time of release, the USB polling rate was 500. Now through updates of the Setpoint software, the report rate can be setup to 1000, which competes with Razer's line of mice currently.
Looks - the mouse looks great. When I first got it and looked at it through the package, I actually thought at first that something was wrong with it, or that the coating was flaking off. After opening it and looking closely, I noticed this was the design, and I though it was pretty cool that it had the rust color added to it. I got the mouse practically when it was first released in the US, so I had not seen many up-close pictures of it to know exactly what it looked like at the time of purchase.
The braided cord is a nice touch as well. This makes the cable stronger in case of a hard yank, and also makes it much more tangle-free. It adds a good stiffness to it that makes the cord more managable.
Overall Impression - I think this is a great mouse. The only issue I have with it is the shape, but as I stated earlier in the review this is all in how someone holds a mouse. If you're a twitchy finger user, you probably would like a more flat, smaller mouse. If you palm mice, this is a dream come true. It feels great to palm, but I just have no pointer control that way as it is not what I am used to.
Overall personal score: 9/10
That is the Logitech G5 laser mouse. I have probably used it the longest of any gaming mouse that I've owned (or is it pwned?). I always want the best precision possible out of a mouse. Some people don't care that a mouse is moving with a report/polling rate of 60, or that it moves in stair-like jaggies across their screen. I would probably die if I had to use a mouse like that.
The G5 is an excellent mouse. One of the features they advertise heavily of this mouse is the ability to adjust the sensitivity on the fly. You can either plug it in, not use the Logitech mouse software and get 3 built-in sensitivities, or you can install the software and get 5 custom sensitivities.
As an avid gamer (I play WoW almost exclusively now, although I was mostly a first-person shooter player before that), I simply do not use this feature at all. Having the option to use it basically makes me get out-of-whack with how my mouse moves and feels to me, therefore I get annoyed with the sensitivity being moved around. I'm a "one sensitivity setting" kind of guy.
My solution? Set the mouse to the middle setting in the Logitech software (Setpoint) to 2000 dpi, turn the other settings completely off, and adjust the mouse cursor speed (slider adjustment) in Setpoint so that 2000 dpi is usable for me. I basically never touch the sensitivity buttons ever again. This way I'm using the mouse at its highest DPI setting and getting the full benefit of it without having to get used to different sensitivities all the time.
For some people this doesn't work at all. My girlfriend uses multiple sensitivities. She plays WoW exclusively, and to me WoW isn't a game where you would swap sensitivities often. It is all in how you play though - depending on what character she is playing she might be using different sensitivities (ranged vs melee). She plays almost exclusively with the mouse also, so she is moving her character with the mouse, point at the buttons, twisting her view, and anything you can imagine all with the mouse. I'm a half & half user, so I use the keyboard and mouse fairly equally with a tilt towards the mouse for clicking the action buttons.
Now for one of the most important factors (at least for me): Shape! The G5 has an "ok" shape for my hands. Technically I prefer flatter mice. I have used the G5 shape for a long while now, as I had an MX500 and MX510. I always liked those, but they didn't quite fit exactly like I wanted. They are "palming" mice. What I mean by this is you rest your whole hand on the mouse, and it fits. Your fingers fit the slots, the buttons line up like they are supposed to, and ta-da, that's that. However, for someone like me, that doesn't work as well because I do not palm mice. I am a finger user, not a hand & arm user. I generally park the arm and move the mouse with my wrist and fingers, touching it with the palm of my hand on rare occasions. It might be weird, but it's how I use it.
Have I tried palming a mouse? Yes. Can I get used to it? I haven't yet. So as far as shape goes, the G5 is tolerable, but not perfect for me. I have an idea that the majority of users "palm" though, so in that aspect I'd have to rate it a 7/10 on hand fitment & shape for myself and probabaly a 10/10 for palming users.
Performance - no doubt, one of (if not the best) performing mice out there right now. Genuine hardware DPI of up to 2000, laser accuracy for even finicky wood-grain surfaces, and smooth as silk with the cursor. Also the slick feet on the bottom seem to be slick on almost any surface I have tried them on. I've used the mouse in WoW, CounterStrike Source, Doom 3, Quake 4, Serious Sam games, and more. It has performed very well with no hitching and was very precise and easy to get used to, even though it isn't a perfect fit for me. At the time of release, the USB polling rate was 500. Now through updates of the Setpoint software, the report rate can be setup to 1000, which competes with Razer's line of mice currently.
Looks - the mouse looks great. When I first got it and looked at it through the package, I actually thought at first that something was wrong with it, or that the coating was flaking off. After opening it and looking closely, I noticed this was the design, and I though it was pretty cool that it had the rust color added to it. I got the mouse practically when it was first released in the US, so I had not seen many up-close pictures of it to know exactly what it looked like at the time of purchase.
The braided cord is a nice touch as well. This makes the cable stronger in case of a hard yank, and also makes it much more tangle-free. It adds a good stiffness to it that makes the cord more managable.
Overall Impression - I think this is a great mouse. The only issue I have with it is the shape, but as I stated earlier in the review this is all in how someone holds a mouse. If you're a twitchy finger user, you probably would like a more flat, smaller mouse. If you palm mice, this is a dream come true. It feels great to palm, but I just have no pointer control that way as it is not what I am used to.
Overall personal score: 9/10
Rating System
I'll use a 10 point rating system commonly used with everything else. For example, 1/10 is horrible, 10/10 is excellent. This should be pretty easy to follow. I may break it down into sections, such as Shape - 10/10, Accuracy - 9/10, etc. If I see a need to change the rating type in the future I may, but at this point it should suffice.
-Rav
-Rav
The Peripheral View
Welcome to The Peripheral View. This blog will represent my personal reviews of certain computer peripherals (mainly mice and sometimes keyboards). Generally I will review these from a gaming perspective, although the general user should be able to glean some information out of these reviews as well. Just because a peripheral is designed for gaming doesn't mean it can't do excellent work in all areas of computing!
Please check back frequently for updated reviews. If this site helps you in making a buying decision, then it's worth it!
-Rav
Please check back frequently for updated reviews. If this site helps you in making a buying decision, then it's worth it!
-Rav
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