Mouse recommendations Options

[Metropolis Man]

I've got a new iMac G5 coming next week with just the standard wired mouse. For some games that I enjoy — Sim City, and Railroad Tycoon come to mind — a single button mouse is fine. But for games like Diablo II, Rise of Nations, and other combat games, having a physical right mouse button would be a time saver compared to Control-clicking.

What wired mice have worked great for you? Thanks.

[1337]

I use and love the Logitech MX1000. It's a sweet mouse, fits perfectly in my hand, and has plenty of buttons to take advantage of. Another nice feature is that it has a battery meter so you can tell when you're running out of juice quite easily.

I highly recommend you go to a Best Buy or similar store and actually handle various mice. Your hand may be shaped in a way that you'd hate using an MX1000. It really is worth trying before you buy, even if you ultimately go with an online merchant.

-1337

[dualg4]

My MX510 is great, I'd recommend it or the newer MX518 if you want a top quality wired mouse.

[Khral]

I love my Logitech MX310. It's stylish, solid, durable, ambidextrous, comfortable, responsive, and has plenty of extra buttons. It works fine with the default OS X drivers, but Logitech's drivers make it really shine in terms of performance.

Logitech mice are the most popular choice of third party mice among Mac users. So you'll probably see lots of people talking about their preferred model of Logitech mouse. What I suggest you do is browse through their website and see which one you like, both in terms of price and features. And if Logitech isn't your thing that's okay. There are plenty of other companies out there, like Kensington and MacAlly.

Anyway, before you go out and buy online or anywhere else I'd highly recommend that you check out a local computer or electronics store that regularly has mice set up for display on the shelves. I know it might seem weird to stare at and touch mice on a shelf, but believe me when I say that it's worth a couple of minutes of looking weird just to make sure you've got the right mouse for yourself. I've burned plenty of cash on mice I didn't like which I ordered online. Lesson learned.

[The iMac Man]

I highly recommend any Kensington mouse.

[placy]

I highly recommend any Kensington mouse.

I wish they would come out with an updated version of
their Thinking Mouse... I still have one of those in the
old ADB format.

[the Battle Cat]

I really like my Macally 3 button, scroll wheel, optical IceMouse.

[Mariner]

I've been using a Logitech MX500 for, probably, two years now. Lots of buttons but the best thing is the perfect fit to my hand. It's also quite good looking. The only downside is that you need USB Override or some other if you want button assignments for individual applications. The Logitech driver allows only one setup at a time.

This has not been much of a problem since I also have a Nostromo N52 without which I could never play a FPS. The Wacom tablet covers everything else. The resolution of the Intuos 2 is great but the mouse just feels sort of clunky, and a little too wide (and I have large hands).

The last mouse was a, gasp!, Microsoft Intellimouse. It's still a good mouse, it's in the bag with the PowerBook, and the driver is application aware.

A good mouse is vital, it is the part of the computer that you are touching all the time.

[Macs4me]

I just switched from a Logitech MX 700 cordless to the MX 1000 series. Man it is a great mouse with fantastic battery time. As other said, USB Overdrive is a must to use all the buttons on these mice. Read that the Logitech 500 series mice are nice wired mice.

Hope this helps,

[Mac_d00d307]

I've got a new iMac G5 coming next week with just the standard wired mouse. For some games that I enjoy — Sim City, and Railroad Tycoon come to mind — a single button mouse is fine. But for games like Diablo II, Rise of Nations, and other combat games, having a physical right mouse button would be a time saver compared to Control-clicking.

What wired mice have worked great for you? Thanks.

If you are looking for something simple and cheap, I would suggest this mouse just because it simple, cheap, and it matches the white of the keyboard and iMac.

[wangahrah]

As others, my vote lies with Logitech as a happy MX510 user.

[Metropolis Man]

Hey, everyone, thanks for the feedback. As it turned out, my PC-lovin' neighbor has a Logitech 510 and it did feel great, so I ordered the 518 last night. Now here's another question: I'm a total greenhorn when it comes to multi-button mice. I've been using Macs since '91, but it's always been Apple's standard mouse. I guess I'm kind of wondering how I'm going to program all these assorted buttons. For those of you who play (or played) Diablo II I'm curious exactly how you have programmed your Logitech mouse — i.e. what keys do have assigned for the right mouse button, etc? Thanks.

[Stickboy]

Popsnizzle to your horrible, plasticky, sweat inducing Logitechs, this my friends is teh BEST MOUSE EVAR.

So good, can't recommend it highly enough. Kensington really know their onions when it's comes to mice for the Macintosh, IMHO MouseWorks is the best driver configuration software around. And if you think you really need more than 800 dpi – get out more.

[Muddy]

In my experience a high DPI mouse is fantastic, it especially makes a lot of difference in fps games - ever tried sniping from afar and couldn't hit them because the mouse just couldn't move onto the target?

The best I've tried is the Logitech MX1000, expensive at £50, but worth every penny if you love your fps games.

[The iMac Man]

...it especially makes a lot of difference in fps games - ever tried sniping from afar and couldn't hit them because the mouse just couldn't move onto the target?

Uhm, no.

If that were the case, there'd be a whole heck of a lot of Photoshop, and other graphic app, users out there who must be pretty steamed that they just can't get their mouse to work on a portion of their document...

[Batcat]

My MX510 is great, I'd recommend it or the newer MX518 if you want a top quality wired mouse.

I have both. The newer 518 has the advantage of being easily switchable, on the fly and in hardware (no drivers involved) between 400, 800 and 1600 DPI.

Great for switching between greater speed (action) and greater precison (sniping).

[the Battle Cat]

I have both. The newer 518 has the advantage of being easily switchable, on the fly and in hardware (no drivers involved) between 400, 800 and 1600 DPI.

Great for switching between greater speed (action) and greater precison (sniping).

I think I just heard Santa drop something in the bag for me... aaaawwwww @#$%^&*! Windows XP only. Fooey.

[Batcat]

I think I just heard Santa drop something in the bag for me... aaaawwwww @#$%^&*!  Windows XP only.  Fooey.

Ask Santa back. That's why I spec'ed DPI switchable in hardware. Works just as well with Macs (buttons on top). A Mac will recognize it as HID-compliant and you're set.

It's the specialized gaming software that's Win-only. Merry Xmas.

[the Battle Cat]

Ask Santa back. That's why I spec'ed DPI switchable in hardware. Works just as well with Macs (buttons on top). A Mac will recognize it as HID-compliant and you're set.

It's the specialized gaming software that's Win-only. Merry Xmas.

What am I missing without the specialized gaming software?

[Batcat]

What am I missing without the specialized gaming software?

Things like even finer control of granularity, acceleration, custom button assignments outside the game, more.

Short, sweet review by a good tech writer:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1776396,00.asp

I now remember that USB Overdrive can do some of that, like finer control of granularity. One of the [MA]Haloers recently got one and uses it that way; calls it smoooooth.

Call Santa.