I've been searching the intarwebs for decent non-wireless mice that have drivers that run under OS X, and I've come up with a few that look promising. Unfortunately, I really don't have much experience purchasing gaming accessories, I'm afraid my choices may not be the best.

I basically want a corded (no wish to replace batteries), high-sensitivity mouse that I can use for dogfighting, and accurate strafing.

Yes, I've been told to use joysticks, but I didn't grow up even using consoles, so I have almost 0 experience using them.

Suggestions would be much appreciated.

The Razor looks good, and is compatible enough to actually be sold in some Apple stores.

I'm not sure how well Logitech supports Mac, but they are a very good company with high quality products.

Well, once upon a time I bought a 9-button Bluetooth mouse that supposedly worked only with Windows, yet it seamlessly connected to my Mac and I could customize the buttons. That work?

Logitech definitely works with Mac, but they're more cordless. Of course, I'm gonna say get a wireless, but if you don't want that, I have no clue. I have a wireless mouse/keyboard combo (unfortunately they don't sell it anymore) I rarely replace the batteries for either... the batteries last for months for me. And I use the thing like 2 hours a day. Plus, there aren't any cords to mess with. They're also talking about this issue here...

Righto, I'm thinking about getting the Logitech G5.

Unless anyone can convince me otherwise, I'll go ahead and get that, because I've heard some flaky stories about the wireless G7.

LOL nice that's a serious mouse there... I found that a much simpler Logitech works great for me, having great precision and speed. I prefer it to apple's bluetooth mice.

The G7 comes with 2 recharge-able batteries, which take ~1 hr to charge and last ~4+ hrs depending on use. They are hot-swappable, slide right out and in, easiest thing ever, so you always have power.

A mate has one, best mouse I've ever used. No problems at all, works fine on my eMac using Panther with no drivers, and I haven't tried it with the Logitech Control Centre yet. I'm upgrading to a G7 from a MX500 when my Mac Pro arrives.

The only problem is with my Razer eXactMat, on the Control side laser mice (not just the G7) do not move at all. However with the DPI gaming reach the Speed side gives awesome responsiveness and accuracy.

For wired mice only the Razer Copperhead or G5 will do. For wireless, only the G7. Myself I strongly recommend the wireless G7, no cord gives much more manoeuvrability and freedom.

Go with a Logitech 8-button, wired. Any one will do. I've been loving my MX510 (blue) for years now.

Doing my final shopping now, thanks much for the input!

I'll be using this mainly for Vendetta Online, if that helps at all. Having multiple mouse buttons to bind to chain-firing commands could be very useful.

8 buttons will revolutionize your computing experience.

The Logitech G5 is an awesome mouse. I love mine. The weight cartridge is a nice touch. The G7 is great too, but I don't own one. I think some of the MX mice are basically the same form factor with an extra button, so if you think you'll want that back button, get the MX.

Regardless of which mouse you get, I recommend USB Overdrive over any manufacturer provided driver. There's also SteerMouse which is okay, but not quite as powerful (though it does let you use the on-the-fly resolution adjustment buttons to actually adjust resolution).

[edit - If you get a wired mouse, I strongly recommend hanging the cord on something. I have mine tied to a twist-tie stapled to a piece of velcro, which is stuck to the side of my monitor.]

Modern wireless mice have no disadvantage to wired mice. Theres next to zero difference in precision.

I love my MX1000, its fantastic.

Seconded, the MX1000 is incredible. That being said, the one disadvantage I've found with (Logitech) wireless mice is that over time, the chargers have a tendency to start not immediately connecting when you put the mouse in the charger, leading to annoying fiddling to get it to charge (though this problem was worse with the MX700 than the MX1000).

Try cleaning the copper connectors on the bottom or your mouse, that's what allows it to charge with the base station.

Well, my iMac hasn't arrived yet, so I am currently using my brand new Logitech G7 mouse... with a PowerBook G3. XD

This thing is an absolute dream. Out of the box, you can switch between 3 different dpi levels, (You can program it to 5, but I don't think I need that ) with really comfy control buttons. I can draw a near-perfect circle with a freehand pencil tool. I can trace individual letters in 12 pt font. Wheee!

Also, the thing glides over anything. I've found it works great against just my leg, from the other side of the room, and it's really nice on tabletop. The 4 way scroll-wheel has accelerated left-right scrolling, which feels incredible. I'll have to see if I can use it for left/right-look commands. The vertical scrolling has a very solid feel to it, and it doesn't slip when you're clicking with the scroll wheel.

The only problem I have is my desk isn't the best optical mouse surface, so when I'm doing low-dpi-mode freehand circle drawing, it jags every once in a while. Once I get USB Overdrive running, though, I'll probably just keep it at high-dpi, slower sensitivity, to balance it out.

That looks extremely similar to my MX900… which had horrible speed, by the way. It lagged way too much…

Good to hear it's nice, though.

Get a mousepad if you're having troubles with the surface. They're good for keeping your mouse clean anyway.

Anyway, grats on the new mouse. Logitech really does make the best ones on the planet.

Ooh, I have a Redline mousepad from Macworld '05...

Mmm, works much better now. Thanks mrxak, I had previously been told that mousepads didn't help optical mice at all. MYTH!

Yeah, it's more that they're not "absolutely necessary." Ball mice have trouble even on a mouse pad, where as you can manage to use an optical mouse (especially laser mice) on your lap* if you want to.

I have a textured Teflon mouse pad right now, which is pretty damned good, but not as friction-free as using it on my Wacom Tablet. I recently ordered a plain old sheet of one-side-bondable industrial teflon though, because I find the texture is annoying. Hopefully the regular sheet will still give good tracking.

*Now, why you would want to massage your crotch with a mouse, I have no idea.

Glad I could help.

Glad you got a G7, I got mine last week along with a G15 the week before. Best peripherals ever.

Is there a way to customize the DPI settings on the G5/G7 with USB overdrive or something else?

Personally, I'm a Kensington fan.

Not that I've seen. However, even though on the Windows side I can have up to 5 dpi settings I only use three (5 is waaaay too many), all the defaults, except 2000 which is replaced with 1200. Most games I put on 0.3 or 0.2 sensitivity and find 800 great for an all-round dpi, 400 good for longer range and 1200/2000 for CQC pistol/shotgun action or checking my six quickly.

On a side note, any help getting the g15.bundle to work with Proxi would be awesome I'm totally unsure of how to get the LCD to display anything...

Wait, is there a disadvantage with using 2000 DPI, does it go slower or glitch?
If it glitches, it defeats the purpose of exact mousing anyway.

SteerMouse let's you define buttons for changing DPI settings and it's got better support for the newer Logitech mice than USB Overdrive. I just bought an MX Revolution to replace an MX510 with a broken left-click (which I later fixed by bending the click spring a little bit) and SteerMouse let me setup the buttons like this:

Horizontal Scroll: Expose and Dashboard
Search Button behind the scroll wheel: Minimize window
Forward and Back buttons: Depends upon the app. Forward and Back for browsing, Finder, iTunes, and I have it set to skip forward and back (7 seconds and 3 seconds, respectively) in EyeTV
The little scroll wheel on the side for your thumb is actually a 3-way button, so: To the front is Hide Application, to the back is Close Window and the middle is Open in Tab in any browser and opens a file in Quicksilver in the Finder (to perform Quicksilver actions on it).

Having so many buttons makes for a much faster and more enjoyable browsing experience. It always kills me when I use other people's computer's and have to try and deal with using keyboard commands again. Really slows me down.

That is not what I was looking for. On the Windows side, you can customize the DPI settings that the buttons change to. So if you wanted, you could define something like 4 DPI levels such as at 100, 400, 1300, and 1900.

2000 DPI is *very* **very** quick. It doesn't glitch or anything, but it is incredibly fast making it only useful to quickly look around or use a shottie/pistol in CQC



I have Steermouse and USB Overdrive and unless I'm missing something they cannot customise DPI anything like the G7 app in Windows

OK, so fewer DPI will be more accurate, because it's slower?

I have my good old 3-button Logitech Pilot Mouse that had two buttons and a scroll wheel (vertical only) that also works as a button. I use it as, surprise, a scroll wheel, and push it down for "all windows" Expóse. I would love to have a better, more accurate and more adjustable mouse than this. Heavier might be better too (I know I could add weight, but I want it to be balanced and not broken, plus a laser is better). This one works fine, and I've had it so long that it no longer has the printer on Logitech logo, and the light never goes off unless it stops getting a signal from the computer (putting the computer to sleep works) because I dropped it once. Hard. It actually swung from the cord off of a furnace (I had to use it in the basement because me and my friend had been kicked out of the rest of the house) and then into the side, so it hit pretty hard. But it still works.

A lower DPI setting makes it much, much easier to track a headshot at med to long to ultra long range. This is because at longer ranges the target moves more slowly on your screen, having a high sensitivity and/or DPI will make distance battles very hard. Basically I use 800 DPI most of the time, only switch to 400 for a distance battle and switch to 1200/2000 to looking around or shottie/pistol CQC

PS. I use hot corners for Expóse, much faster and cooler then a button.

snip

Minor reality slip, it was early


Yeah, I know. But it's the best I've seen offered so far. I've heard that the Overdrive developer may be adding that feature in one of the upcoming releases, but nothing yet.


I would use them but I've got a couple monitors on either side so it's usually way too far to move the pointer to get to a hot corner.

Negative. Higher DPI = faster movement; Lower DPI = slower movement.

Now that it's too late to have a meaningful contribution, I would like to add that the Razer is a nice mouse. I received it for my PC gaming needs, but use it now with my MacBook. I'd say picking one up would not be a bad move, although it always depends on how much they're going for at the given time.

Yeah, the Logitech G5 and Razor Copperhead are pretty much on par with each other. Heck, they use the exact same laser hardware.

What browser is that?
Just curious.

Shiira I believe.

Sure is Shiira. I don't use the beta though, it seems to have less features in it... Among other things Shiira can do this:



Basically Expose but only on Shiira *tabs*

GamePad Companion will also let you define button use. It works as one of your system preferences.

I recently asked this question on a gaming forum. There was little consensus.

I guess I'm going to go with the MX518. I've only heard good things about it, and I'd rather my mouse be too big than too small a la Razer. And apparently the sensitivity buttons are useful, at least when re-bound to something less ridiculous to be switching in the middle of a CounterStrike round.

I'm also not a big fan of USB OverDrive. Basically what it lets you do is bind USB device buttons to key presses and mouse movement. Sometimes this is a life-saver (it let me play X-Wing on my iMac with a USB joystick by binding the stick position to "absolute" mouse control), sometimes it's totally useless - like if you want fine analogue stick control in a game that has crappy gamepad support but also doesn't support mouse control. Deimos Rising is a classic example thanks to the fact that the computer can only register so many key presses, making utilizing USB overdrive for two-player not that fantastic. However, it is a necessity since Deimos seems to want to calibrate hat switches which is basically retarded and impossible, making playing using the built-in settings unworkable.

Set them crooked so you still get an average of two corners per screen available. Its what I do at work, but there it also helps that that the gigantic cinema display is much bigger than the laptop screen.

So I just bought an MX518, and it's pretty nice. I'd recommend it. Though it took a little getting used to, I'm no worse off in Counter-Strike than I was with my old ball mouse. The sensitivity buttons are idiotic, but in Windows or with USB Overdrive they can be bound to something else.

However, anyone know a way to bind the side buttons to back and forwards in Safari, without USB Overdrive? I just stuck them on Exposé duty for lack of anything else to do with them, but back and forwards would be more useful, since screen corners already work quite wall for Exposé.