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New mouse

New mouse

Postby Spack » Sun Jan 12, 2014 5:02 pm

Finally decided I had to get a new mouse. My previous trusty mouse, a Microsoft Basic Optical Wheel Mouse, finally gave up in early Dec after nearly 6 years of abuse. I had a spare cheap nasty mouse kicking around which had a dodgy left microswitch so I swapped it with the wheel one, and have been using it for a month. Today I finally gave up on it, as the left button is again failing to register clicks. As I couldn't wait for something to arrive in the post I drove up to my local PC World and had already decided on a Microsoft or Logitech mouse, and to avoid the Advent ones. However, it's clear that my hands are unusually large for someone who uses a mouse, as most of the ones on offer were really small. I finally found a comfortable one with a reasonable price in the form of a Sandstrom S8M113. "A what?" I hear you cry, and well you should - I'd never heard of the make before either; and it didn't take long to realise it was PC World's own brand being owned by DSG. At half price, and a better feel than the small mice, I thought I'd take a risk, and the two side buttons were listed as only working with Windows 8 but that's not a problem as I've never had side buttons so wouldn't miss them in Windows 7.

I was expecting the mouse to pretty ordinary, and plugged in the wireless USB dongle preparing for a cheap and cheerful solution. No issues finding the mouse, and it worked straight away. But it was clear there was something not quite ordinary about this mouse - the sensitivity is incredible, and I've had to reduce it in Windows and World of Tanks (in sniper mode the sensitivity is dialled down to about 1/4 of default) so that the mouse pointer doesn't whiz around like a maniac. The mouse is comfortable in hand, it's a good size and the matt upper surface is non-slip so the feel is really secure. I've had no issues with it so far, and it's a dream to use, better than the Microsoft mouse I had before. I do need to be careful of the side buttons though - even though the instructions claim they do not work in Windows 7 or lower, the front one does replicate Windows+Tab to bring up all the open windows, and does scroll through them. I will attempt to see if it's possible to customise them in some way.
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Re: New mouse

Postby timewizard » Sun Jan 12, 2014 5:38 pm

It should be possible to customize the buttons.
I use a logitech mouse, and after downloading the software I can customize all the buttons on it.
Did a search and didn't find any support for it as of yet.
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Re: New mouse

Postby Socaddict » Sun Jan 12, 2014 5:46 pm

Welcome tot he world of high DPI mice.

One of the reasons I've been using Logitech pretty much exclusively for almost a decade - I like being able to switch the DPI on the fly, and customise etc.

Then again, my mouse history goes like this: random rubbish optical -> MX510 -> G5 -> G9 -> G700 (what I use now).
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Re: New mouse

Postby Spack » Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:02 pm

There's no software for this mouse - the two buttons appear to be hard coded to two of the Windows 8 key combinations, one of which is Win+Tab.

EDIT: the second button appears to be Win+C, which for Windows 8 is "Display charms"
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Re: New mouse

Postby timewizard » Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:06 pm

Trial + Error? ;)
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Re: New mouse

Postby berger15 » Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:26 pm

I use a Sharkoon Drakonia mouse. I bought it last year, as I had built a new pc and felt a new mouse and keyboard were LONG overdue (I was still using the original "tiny pc" mouse and keyboard I had received 10 years ago with my last pc!). The mouse has an adjustable weight system, adjustable (via a button on the back) up to 5000dpi, teflon pads and is a bit bigger than other makes, so I find it more comfortable with my yeti sized paws.

I built my PC and used a Sharkoon PC case, so I then bought the Sharkoon Skiller keyboard, and then to finish it all off, the mouse and mouse mat to tie it all together! I feel like a fanboy. Or someone with a strange form of OCD! It's really the design and styling that drew me to them. And I have to say, i love them all.
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Re: New mouse

Postby markb » Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:58 pm

I use a Perixx MX-2000 10 button gaming mouse, £30 of Amazon. It's got 5400 DPI but I never use anywhere near that for WoT. It's really comfortable, the buttons are well laid out and easy to reach and it is an absolute revelation for such a relatively cheap mouse. The software is a doddle to use to programme the buttons, I have one set for press to talk, one for the fire extinguisher, one for Help and the mouse wheel click is set to switch straight to sniper view. I used to have a Logitech G500 gaming mouse and all I will say about it is I will never, ever touch anything by Logitech ever again. It was twice the cost of the Perixx and was utterly shit. It broke in the first couple of months, the main buttons either wouldn't work or would release prematurely. I got a replacement under warranty and that one did the same. After looking around the net I found this was a common problem. Also whenever I had an Nvidia crash in WoT it would also crash the driver software for the mouse which meant I would have to restart it all. So far after 6 months I haven't had a single problem with the Perixx and would thoroughly recommend one to anybody.
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Re: New mouse

Postby Angelwing » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:27 am

I've got 6 new mice. I've managed 3 confirmed kills so far and the other 3 have been eating the poison bait for a week. All seems quiet now, but I have to wait and see.

Computer mouse, I have a logitech rx1000. There's a button on top with a magnify glass on it. Never dared try it to see what it does.
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Re: New mouse

Postby Spack » Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:10 am

After some tinkering I've managed to get AutoHotKeys to override the side buttons :D In normal Windows mode it will now treat them the same as any other side buttons 4 and 5 on non-programmable mice, so in a browser they default to forward/backward for instance. But for WoT the front button is repair tracks (sends 45, which is consumable 4 - repair in my setup - followed by item 5, tracks), and the back button is manual fire extinguisher (sends 6). Looking at the AHK documentation it's possible to do pretty much anything with any mouse button, in multiple combinations - basically turning a 3/4/5 button mouse into a 500 button mouse with funky keyboard combinations ;)
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Re: New mouse

Postby Angelwing » Tue Jan 21, 2014 11:07 am

I genuinely can't make any sense out of that haha!
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Re: New mouse

Postby Spack » Tue Jan 21, 2014 11:52 am

Heh :) To put it simply, my cheap PCWorld own brand mouse that has two side buttons that "only work with Windows 8" are now fully working in Windows 7 and configurable.

Check out http://www.autohotkey.com - it's a great piece of free software, allowing overrides of any keyboard or mouse button. Very handy if your mouse or keyboard doesn't come with software to customise it - or if you just want to say automate various tasks based on certain keyboard combinations (like press Win key + N to open Notepad).
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Re: New mouse

Postby Talus » Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:16 pm

i would just like to apologise to the AoS Community, i have no idea how this PC World spam bot got onto the site, but i will consult with the administrator to make sure it never happens again!


nothing good EVER comes from that store >_>
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Re: New mouse

Postby Spack » Tue Jan 21, 2014 1:25 pm

While I thought that was true myself, I must admit that this mouse isn't bad at all. When 99% of the mice available seemed designed for hands that about half the size of mine, it's refreshing to find a decent sized one that works really well. Of course I might be moaning about how crap it is next month when it breaks, but for now it'll do.

By the way, here's one of my recently completed projects - there are a few design tweaks to be done, but it's pretty much complete and is simply awaiting approval and a link from the main PCW website: http://www.pcworld-books.co.uk
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Re: New mouse

Postby timewizard » Tue Jan 21, 2014 1:40 pm

Talus wrote: i have no idea how this PC World spam bot got onto the site,


You just press the bottom mouse button, that's the same as the hotkey combo Win key + 'P' + 'C' + Globe key. ;)

@Spack - Nice work there, very clean looking web page, easy to navigate. Good job mate.
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Re: New mouse

Postby KInG » Tue Jan 21, 2014 2:18 pm

I've tried kicking the spammer but for some reason the user called 'Spack' is not removable.
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