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Can a "gaming" mouse, mousepad, or keyboard really improve your performance? It seems kind of skecthy to me, charging 45$ for a piece of flat aluminum as a mousepad, and what's the advantages of a "low profile" keyboard, or a high-res optical mouse?

I don't think so. Those who have them do think so.

Ehh, well, it's because the gaming peripherals have things like profiles/shortcut keys/etc embedded into the device which makes gaming a little bit easier for the enthusiastic. And you can program key combos into single buttons on the G15. etc. Also the G9 mouse has weights you can add to get the perfect mouse weight for you, and has changeable profiles to make the mouse speed increase/decrease without needing to find the options in a game. This can make instanty decisions in a game work to your advantage where you may need the mouse slightly slower or faster in a given time.

They most just have features like that which make them gaming devices. The response time may be higher on these too, my G9 mouse is much faster/smoother than my older non-gaming version of USB mice.

I feel that instead of getting gaming mice and keyboards you get wireless mice, keyboards, and various gaming controls. Wireless things can improve your mobility while playing without fiddleing with cords.

Wireless in my experience of being a hardcore gamer are not something you'd want to own if you were a gamer. I've used one before and it can't keep up with the speed of my clicks which gets me killed in online games. It was a logitech mouse too.

I own a Razer Diamondback Plasma Edition myself and the only advantage i find is the ergonomics which allow me to use my mouse comfortably for extended periods of time, that and i get extra buttons on my mouse (7 to be precise) that allows me to assign keys all over the place, for convenience when i play. Apart from that i don't have issues with really light mice or really heavy mice. Anything works for me.

Oh but if its one thing the mouse has to be really sensitive to movement, as it helps when i'm doing sniping shots haha... so in that sense yes it would help to either own a 1600 dpi and over IR/ Laser mouse.

Not sure about keyboards as i think z-boards are just gimmicks, but i'd like to try one and feel the difference. As for keyboards like the G15 and G11, I don't know how often i'd touch their macro keys as personally not alot of my games require that much combination buttons, and also an LCD panel is absolutely useless to me as i spend most of my time looking at the screen.

Also, backlit keys don't help much to me because i can touchtype and can easily find my orientation with the little 'bumps' on the f and k keys.

In the end its up to how you use it to judge how useful it is for you really. I don't use gaming mouse pads as i find them ridiculous for their price and my table works just fine but yeah. just my 5 cents.

Z-boards, etc. aren't really "gimmicks", as some people see them as being something a new player would work better with. My first keyboard was a Z-board (interchangable), and I loved it. Now, though, I use the standard keyset as the keys are a bit faster. Mice, on the other hand, have to be a good one. I have a crappy gigaware, and can tell the difference.

gaming mouse, yeah.. .. gaming keyboard, not really.

I currently have a logitech comfort mouse($20), nothing too crappy but defiantly not "uber". And i am using a logitech value keyboard which i got for $10. I wouldnt spend more that that on hardware.

No. Maybe marginally so, but not to a greatly noticeable extent.
I myself currently use a $10 Genius mouse and I like it pretty well. My old Logitech got screwed and I thought of getting this one just to see if it's make any difference. It didn't. Oh and FYI, it was a gaming mouse, specifically the G5 Laser.
But I do agree that a good keyboard with soft keys is a definite plus, even moreso if it's wireless. I bought my AOPen Wireless keyboard for that exact same reason.

Hmm, I don't know. I prefer Wired due to the fact that every board I have messed with that was wireless ran the batteries dry. In fact, they were good boards, just very hungry.

I don't think they can increase performance, but they can help.

I have never used gaming keyboards myself, but I agree that the benefit could come from macros and customized layouts like with the Zboard.

As for mice, I definitely believe a good and comfortable high DPI mouse like the Logitech G series or Razer's can improve your performance, perhaps not necessarily in terms of "kills" but just think the basics, better tracking, more functionality with better positioned buttons, etc.

I think just having a mouse that properly fits your hands is key. Just about any mouse made in the last 5 years that costs more than $10 has a sufficient enough DPI for 99% of us. I had (still have) a Logitec iFeel mouse that I got back in 1999 or 2000, and I thought it was the greatest mouse ever at the time. I used it until somewhere around late 2005 or 2006 as my main computers mouse. Then I got a Logitec LX7 "invisible optic" mouse, and it is the greatest mouse I've ever used. I don't have very large hands and its contours fit mine perfectly. Its wireless and has about an 8 month battery life on 2650mAh Duracell AAs. I have since switched to Alkaline batteries for it because I'd rather put those rechargeables in a higher drain device (like a Wii remote). So to get to the point, I think you need a mouse that feels perfect in your hand, that should be the priority over a "gaming mouse" because I don't think the difference between 1800dpi and 8000dpi is going to make you a better gamer. The dpi advantage probably ended once you got above 800.

I definitely have to agree with previous post, ergonomics are the key, for some people (like me) also the "need" of a few extra buttons on the mouse is a must.

I use a set of wireless Microsft KB & mouse and it works perfectly for me, I forgot the model right now (cause I'm at work) and the gaming is not a problem, maybe I'm not so fast with the clicking but it keeps up with my speed on the games and never been an issue even for online gaming.

Batteries aren't an issue either since I replace them every 6 months or so, but definitely if this mouse didn't had the shape it has I wouldn't use it

I think that the gaming mouse and those gaming keyboards make your gaming a bit more complicated, but easier.

its all up to you really. you want a mouse that fits comfortable in you hand and a keyboard that wont mess up your wrists and the like. most gaming mouses to move faster and smoother which is beneficial. any old keyboard will do, i personally have a curved keyboard which allows my wrist to keep straiter.

Well, they can be convenient kind of. My friend's Logitech MX620 Fits really good in my hands and is good for gaming, I guess. But at home, I can game perfectly well using my stupid $10 Microsoft Optical Mouse, even if it sometimes loses it's position on the screen causing my hud to go every-which-way. It's really your choice, I would choose comfort personally, for more gaming endurance.

doesn't matter, but it the skilled player behind those device that count =]

say... i would love to see a console user vs a pc user in a multiplayer match playing COD4 or TF2 =]

anyway heres a video I made using with the cheap dell keyboard and a logitech 3 years old mouse.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/u...es/124333.html

watch for those rockets! : )

Oh, so the keyboard doesn't really matter, but the mouse does and it's all about egronomics. Gotcha.

well a comfortable mouse + with the right sensitive setting would help you win allot of match. Since all the killing rely 95% on the mouse, like aiming to the head etc within 0.5-1 sec would make a difference imo :P

I think they have the potential for example me I'm used to slower settings but with those higher speed more dpi mouse's you can move your pointer faster but the only way it does any good is if your good enough to use it at those speeds anyways thats what i think.

Uhhh, Edwin, I agree, but then again, you had no sentence structure whatsoever.

Ok, I was wrong. I tried playing a third/first person shooter with a ball mouse that costs 10 dollars, and it was horrid.....