Optical or Ball mice??? which do you think is better for gaming?

[Kumagoro]

I only have an old microsoft wheel mouse and the wireless optical mouse.
And i have to say that the old style ball mouse is 10x better for gaming then
the optical one.

When i play Unreal T with my bro I kick his arse when im using the ball mouse
but always lose when using the optical one. Even though he is pretty ****e
at the game.

I have only ever used the microsoft wireless optical mouse so im wondering
if it just that one. What thoughts do you have on optical mice?

I think the reason why (for me and my bro) that its not as good is because
when picking up the mouse and moving it, the LED reflects on the surface
and moves a bit.

Its worrying that it seems they are not making ball mice anymore really.

[Stoo]

Logitech MX700 Wireless optical = teh daddy

[spazman]

I 2nd that, best mouse ever!

[Stewart]

Razor Boomslang 2100 = teh daddy's daddy.

[Moby-Dick]

I'm a fan of optical but wired - dont like wireless kit

[doctor_prox]

I remember one of my mates old wireless microsoft ones had a really bad delay, you move it and the pointer moves later when it can be bothered. Im sure the new ones are a lot better, my intellimouse optical owns.

[spazman]

Boomslang 2100 is ugly as hell

[Twigman]

I'm a fan of optical but wired - dont like wireless kit

Couln't agree more

[BlackSheep]

Optical mice are effectively in their 3rd generation now in terms of optical resolution and samples per second. I don't know of any wireless optical mice from Microsoft that can compete with the 3rd generation MX700/900 (bluetooth) offerings from Logitech.

The problem with a lot of earlier generation wireless optical mice (and also wireless ball mice) was the perceptible lag you would experience when gaming.

Get yourself any of the logitech MX range of mice or the corded intellimouse Explorer 3 (or newer) and you will have a mouse that is noticably better than any ball mouse out there. I personally still prefer the improved tracking you get with a corded mouse, so I use the MX300 (or, occasionally the MX500).

The main improvement over ball mice that 3rd gen. optical mice bring to the table are:

> consistency of movement (no more ball slippage when it's hot) and this includes being able to track very fast flick movements (1st gen. optical mice used to skip when performing flick movements)
> longer life-span and less maintenance - you don't have to take the ball out and clean the innards to stop that feeling of rolling over gravel

... you still can't get as high resolution as say the boomslang 2K (although note razer's new 1000dpi is getting closer), but there is more than enough resolution @ 800dpi for most gamers.

[blockers]

Get an optical (wired), get a wooden desk and use some Mr Pledge dustguard on it. Mouse movement is soooo smooth, doesnt work with a ball as they have noting to grip against.

[Romanov]

Pledge is a deffo need for optical mouse, my intellimouse explorer is great for gaming on a smooth wood table but if the grippers get gummed up with a bit of dust its terrible, jerky bad motion so get that pledge!!

[nichomach]

I like optical wired; I use an MX500, which seems to do nicely.

[streetster]

intellimouse explorer v4 here the difference between a balled-mouse and the v1 intellimouse explorer v1 i got a few years ago was incredible... i got a wireless intellimouse too as an RMA of a duff one.. i used it until the batteries ran out and then went back to my wired one.. dont really see the point in wireless mice

[Steve]

Wireless mice should be called hamsters IMO.

[spazman]

I use an old logitech corded optical jobbie as a back up if u suddenly run out of battery, but thats very very rarely.

[TiG]

Optical wired all the way in my experience. Intellimouse explorer v3 special edition in silver which i love!

TiG