Of all the input devices you can have on a computer, the mouse and the keyboard are the most important ones of all. They are required for almost all of the actions that you can perform. Especially if you are a gamer, the first thing you would want is a good mouse. So how do you decide wether a mouse is good or bad? Well there are a few things that we can look for.
First, is the mouse's DPI. DPI stands for Dots Per Inch. What this value means is the number of pixels the cursor will move on your monitor for every inch you move your mouse on your mousepad, or whatever else you have under your mouse. This is important because it directly affects how sensitive your mouse is. For example, if your screen resolution is 1280 x 1024 and your mouse's DPI is 800, you will have to move your mouse at least 1.6 inches to get the cursor from the very left side to the very right side of the screen. A typical gaming mouse will have a DPI ranging from 1200 to 2500. A really good mouse can reconize to 5000 pixels for every inch of movement, or even higher. However, higher the DPI is not always the better. For games like CS, if you have a mouse with high DPI, it would be harder to aim because the cursor will move large distances even with tiny movements. But if you use a mouse with low DPI, it might be hard to move your character around, since it will require a greater amount of physical movement. For games like StarCraft, sometimes it requires accurate clicking on certain units. That could be very hard to do when your cursor moves really fast, not mentioning that StarCraft has a rather low screen resolution already. If your mouse's DPI is too low, however, it could be hard to select groups of units and apply commands at high speeds, also because it takes more physical movements. So for StarCraft, even 800 DPI is enough, and for CS, something like 1200 DPI is about right. Of course, you can always adjust your mouse sensitivity in the control pannel, so having a higher DPI usually won't hurt.
Secoundly, is the mouse's FPS. FPS in this case stands for Frames Per Secound (not First Person Shooting). This value is the number of times the laser on the bottom of your mouse scans the mousepad (or what ever that's under your mouse) every secound. This value is always the higher the better. To understand what's important about FPS, lets first look at how a mouse works. The laser on the bottom of your mouse scans the mousepad rapidly to gather information. Depending on the information gathered between every two scans, the mouse will decide how much it's position has changed and in what direction is the change. How does it do that? Lets imagine every time the mouse scans the mousepad, it's taking a picture of what is on the mousepad. If you see a bit of dirt at the center of the first image, and on the secound image, the dirt has moved towards the bottom, then you can tell that the mouse has moved upwards. If the number of scans per secound is too low, which means that the time between every two scans is too long, then maybe on the secound image, the dirt would have moved so far that it is not on the picture anymore. In that case, the mouse would not be able to tell where has itself moved to. This problem occurs quite often when the mouse's FPS is not high enough, especially in games like CS, where large and fast movements of the mouse are required at all times through out the game.
Last, but DEFINITELY NOT LEAST, on deciding wether a mouse is good or not, is how it feels in your own hand. Different users have different likings and different feelings and different preferences and different...... My point is, everyone is very VERY DIFFERENT, and how you like your mouse is more important than anything else. There are many professional players out there using 20 dollar mouses to play their matches, just because they like the way the mouse feel to them, and probalbly have gotten use to them over their years of playing. Some mouses have little weights inside them, that allow the user to change it's heaviness. Some mouses also have extra buttons on them that you can assign hotkeys to. Some people find those very convinient while others think they are too bothersome and complicated to use, it's all for you to decide on what you like and what you don't.
After all that explaination, I hope all of you, if not already, now know more about how to chose your mouse. One brand that I would suggest, is Razer. The mouses they make are truely professional, and usually for gaming. They also offer a wide variety of selections for prices and style.
First, is the mouse's DPI. DPI stands for Dots Per Inch. What this value means is the number of pixels the cursor will move on your monitor for every inch you move your mouse on your mousepad, or whatever else you have under your mouse. This is important because it directly affects how sensitive your mouse is. For example, if your screen resolution is 1280 x 1024 and your mouse's DPI is 800, you will have to move your mouse at least 1.6 inches to get the cursor from the very left side to the very right side of the screen. A typical gaming mouse will have a DPI ranging from 1200 to 2500. A really good mouse can reconize to 5000 pixels for every inch of movement, or even higher. However, higher the DPI is not always the better. For games like CS, if you have a mouse with high DPI, it would be harder to aim because the cursor will move large distances even with tiny movements. But if you use a mouse with low DPI, it might be hard to move your character around, since it will require a greater amount of physical movement. For games like StarCraft, sometimes it requires accurate clicking on certain units. That could be very hard to do when your cursor moves really fast, not mentioning that StarCraft has a rather low screen resolution already. If your mouse's DPI is too low, however, it could be hard to select groups of units and apply commands at high speeds, also because it takes more physical movements. So for StarCraft, even 800 DPI is enough, and for CS, something like 1200 DPI is about right. Of course, you can always adjust your mouse sensitivity in the control pannel, so having a higher DPI usually won't hurt.
Secoundly, is the mouse's FPS. FPS in this case stands for Frames Per Secound (not First Person Shooting). This value is the number of times the laser on the bottom of your mouse scans the mousepad (or what ever that's under your mouse) every secound. This value is always the higher the better. To understand what's important about FPS, lets first look at how a mouse works. The laser on the bottom of your mouse scans the mousepad rapidly to gather information. Depending on the information gathered between every two scans, the mouse will decide how much it's position has changed and in what direction is the change. How does it do that? Lets imagine every time the mouse scans the mousepad, it's taking a picture of what is on the mousepad. If you see a bit of dirt at the center of the first image, and on the secound image, the dirt has moved towards the bottom, then you can tell that the mouse has moved upwards. If the number of scans per secound is too low, which means that the time between every two scans is too long, then maybe on the secound image, the dirt would have moved so far that it is not on the picture anymore. In that case, the mouse would not be able to tell where has itself moved to. This problem occurs quite often when the mouse's FPS is not high enough, especially in games like CS, where large and fast movements of the mouse are required at all times through out the game.
Last, but DEFINITELY NOT LEAST, on deciding wether a mouse is good or not, is how it feels in your own hand. Different users have different likings and different feelings and different preferences and different...... My point is, everyone is very VERY DIFFERENT, and how you like your mouse is more important than anything else. There are many professional players out there using 20 dollar mouses to play their matches, just because they like the way the mouse feel to them, and probalbly have gotten use to them over their years of playing. Some mouses have little weights inside them, that allow the user to change it's heaviness. Some mouses also have extra buttons on them that you can assign hotkeys to. Some people find those very convinient while others think they are too bothersome and complicated to use, it's all for you to decide on what you like and what you don't.
After all that explaination, I hope all of you, if not already, now know more about how to chose your mouse. One brand that I would suggest, is Razer. The mouses they make are truely professional, and usually for gaming. They also offer a wide variety of selections for prices and style.
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