What makes a good Gaming Mouse?

Sometime in mid-to-late January 2026,

I stopped by my local BEST BUY in DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER and bought this beauty right here:

The RAZER BASILISK V3 PRO Wireless Gaming Mouse, 

This is my current mouse that I use with my Ryzen 9 9950X3D Custom build.

Alongside my DELL INSPIRON RYZEN 7 LAPTOP.

One of the reasons I switched back to RAZER from my previous LOGITECH is not because I like RAZER's products more but rather I wanted to go back to using a Wireless Mouse as I've started to use my DELL RYZEN 7 Laptop connected to my HISENSE TV as well as my ASUS ULTRAWIDE Monitor but the problem with using my other mice is due to their USB Cables and my Cat MISO has taken a liking to biting said cables.

"IT WASN'T ME!!! I SWEAR!!"

I was considering switching to a CORSAIR variant of my LOGITECH HERO because I like the ICUE LINK software but for some reason, I decided to switch back to RAZER.

Now I don't claim to be a designer but If it were up to me to design a mouse for a Company should they hire me, 

Here's what I want in a MOUSE:

COMFORTABILITY:

Like a lot of you people who use computers, 

I've got big hands.

I've used some small mice in the past and they don't fill my hand very well so I want that comfort of holding a mouse that I can rest my palm on.

And what I want is that convex curvature to allow your palm to rest on. 

I've dealt with some demo units that are just flat slabs with rounded edges but I wouldn't be caught dead using such a form factor.

NAVIGATABILITY:

One thing I liked about my previous RAZER DEATHADDER Mouse I've used with the MSI Laptop, my original MAVERICK WARHAWK RTX 5900x build, and the first few months of the FALCON 7900RT's existence is the two buttons on the side which I actually use for navigating pages whenever I'm on WINDOWS EXPLORER or BROWSING the web via GOOGLE CHROME.

Not many Mice come with those side buttons and I definitely like that. 

It's so much better than moving your Mouse to the arrow buttons and it certainly beats having to use ALT-(Arrow Keys) when I'm navigating.

One style of mouse I just can't seem to grasp however are those that use a KEYPAD on the side

I've tried some Demo Units at my BEST BUYs before like this CORSAIR MOUSE on a Demo Kiosk at the CAMBIE St. BEST BUY. 

and while the movement of the mouse is decent and I like the Ergonomics,

some games I can barely play due to how small and close in proximity these keys are on the mouse.

And they make File/Web Exploration more difficult for me without those navigation buttons.

This ain't the days of the ATARI JAQUAR version of DOOM from ID Software.

3 months since making this post, I've read a news report about an AMERICAN DOCTOR who goes by the name of DOCTOR JAMES RIES who actually swears by the use of a RAZER NAGA V2 PRO mouse where he uses the number pad on the side of the mouse for inputting codes on his work sheets..... 

You know what, 

here's the TOM'S HARDWARE ARTICLE about RIES' use of his Mouse

And here's the embedded WEBINAR on VIMEO:

THIS DOCTOR TREATS PATIENTS WITH A RAZER GAMING MOUSE

LOCKABLE SCROLL WHEEL:

One thing I liked in my LOGITECH HERO MOUSE was the ability to unlock the scroll wheel so I can freely scroll through pages without hearing that tactile click on my mouse and if I want to switch back to that, I can just lock the wheel back.

Not many Mice have that ability, not even the Corsair Mice I was browsing have that.

I was glad I went with my RAZER BASILISK due to it's ability to Lock the scroll wheel though it's system of doing that requires it to be powered on either via USB or through it's battery.

ADDED WEIGHT:

What's with this trend of making MICE lightweight? I just can't understand that. I started to notice this when I used my DEATHADDER ELITE mouse and I noticed how lightweight it felt to hold when compared to another LOGITECH I've used which granted it was because of the swappable AA Battery I used in that thing.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of Gaming Mice that are advertised as ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT because to me, it feels weird that way because How am I susposed to take it's HIGH PRICES seriously if they weigh about as much as a CHEAPO Mouse?

I sometimes demo these MICE in stores like BEST BUY and MEMORY EXPRESS and they about weigh nothing......and they almost feel like they're made of cheap plastic even though they're susposed to be sturdy.

And god forbid the cheapo Regular Mice that pretty much weigh like nothing.

There is a set of Keyboard and Mouse that one of the translators for my Church use and that particular mouse is SO LIGHTWEIGHT, that I suspect the whole mouse is made of the same material as a DVD Case.

SWITCHABLE CONNECTIVITY:

One reason I chose my RAZER BASILISK is due to it's 3-IN-1 feature where it can be used either connected to the computer, wireless via the dongle, or wireless via Bluetooth.

I can choose to use the mouse in any mode thanks to it's little switch on the bottom where it's labelled 2.4GZ, BLUETOOTH, or WIRED.

For my MAVERICK FALCON 7900RT, I just use it's Dongle.

For others like my DELL LAPTOP, I use Bluetooth.

ADJUSTABLE DPI:

Regular/Office Mice have no way for you to change the DPI unless you go to system settings on your Windows, Mac, or Linux machine but even then, I find that mentally cumbersome. 

One thing I like about gaming Mice is the ability to change the DPI on the fly.

There are Two Styles of DPI Buttons

The first is DPI UP/DOWN Buttons where the mouse will let you set your DPI either upward or downward to suit your needs on your desk.

The Second is the DPI CYCLE Button where it's just one button but you can cycle through your different DPI settings.

My DEATHADDER ELITE Mouse is one of those that use the DPI UP/DOWN Buttons,

while my BASILISK has one of these CYCLE Buttons built into it.

Though my LOGITECH does have both built in

G7 & G8 are the UP/DOWN Buttons while G9 is the Cycle Button

I don't know what my Current DPI for my BASILISK is set to.....

Last I checked on the RAZER SYNAPSE app, My Basilisk is set to 1600 DPI.

Clearly, the late DOUGLAS ENGELBART didn't realize that his invention of the MOUSE would be used in VIDEO GAMES

which required manufacturers to reconfigure the philosophy of how a Mouse should be built. 

But we should all thank ENGERLBART and his friend BILL ENGLISH for the most important tool that we use in computers today.

Happy 35th Anniversary WEBCAMS

While your webcam of choice isn't exactly 35 years old due to difference in manufacturing,

The tech behind the WEBCAM is about 35 years old as of this writing.

Who would have thought that the origins of the WEBCAM would be traced back to the UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE?

It's true.

But unlike most UNIVERSITY TECH STORIES where a product was the result of a student making something that would earn the highest praise on their thesis,

The WEBCAM was actually created to help facilitate the Coffee Rush for the Faculty.

Yes. I really do mean it. 

A FREAKING COFFEE MACHINE facilitated the creation of the Modern Day Webcam.

The story goes that the Faculty at CAMBRIDGE were getting mighty pissed about the way things were at the Campus when it came to Coffee.

Ever hate it when you don't have your coffee before you leave your home and you have to fight your grogginess when driving or taking transit when going to school or work?

And then fight that same grogginess when at work? 

That's how the CAMBRIDGE Faculty felt.

The problem was that for many faculty members, there was a single dedicated Coffee Room called THE TROJAN ROOM which meant that for certain staff members located in floors that were a few walking distances away from the room, this would be aggravating for those who make the long trip through the hallways and stairs only to find the Pot empty and devoid of any coffee.

Rather than complain to the upper brass which wouldn't do anything about it, the Faculty decide to take it on to themselves to fix this issue.

Grabbing a random CCD Security Camera

and an ACORN ARCHIMEDES Computer with a Video Capture Module,

a connection with it was made.

And thus was born, THE TROJAN COFFEE POT CAMERA.

The idea being that if a Security Camera was pointed to a Coffee Pot, then the Faculty can know if there's coffee in the TROJAN ROOM, the name of the coffee room in CAMBRIDGE.

And I've read that leftovers of the Coffee often tasted pretty bad according to the faculty so the Camera proved to help people know when there's fresh tasting coffee available.

Sometime later in 1993, the first instances of the WORLD WIDE WEB started to emerge and the existence of the TROJAN COFFEE POT began to circulate and become a fixture in internet popularity.

And thus, the very first WEBCAM was born......

One of the first WEBCAMS to be made available to Consumers would be the SGI INDYCAM released in 1993.

But I can barely classify this Webcam as being made for Consumers due to a multitude of factors.

Because take a look at what Computer this was often paired with:

Ahh yes. The good old SGI INDY Workstation from 1993.

So why am I questioning the INDY Webcam?

Because the host computer, the INDY, had a starting price of $5000 which made it more affordable compared to SGI's other computers which often were over $10,000 more than even the highest end 486 or Macintosh Quadra of the time period.

But even the INDY was often financially out of reach for many users in the 90s.

And like I said in many past posts,

The mentality of many people who had computers was:

VIDEO GAMES.

Yes, many people only bought computers for the sole purpose of playing Video Games, much to the chagrin of parents and Computer Manufacturers.

So to facilitate the needs for the average schmuck who would want a camera for their computer, but don't want to spend thousands on an SGI or Sun Microsystems SunSparc Workstation, 

A little company called CONNECTIX decided to release this:

This is the CONNECTIX QUICKCAM

A Webcam that connected to the serial port of your Computer back in the 90s.

Early in the days, Webcams were limited by frame buffers, and CCD Sensors that could only do Black & White unless you had serious money to spend on more expensive but better hardware.

In 1998, Logitech would eventually buy CONNECTIX and rebrand the QUICKCAMS under the Logitech Branding and it would stick for many years and counting.

By this point, all Webcams had moved away from Serial to USB.

And all these Cameras onward would be in Color from the very start.

With the exception of a few Apple Branded Webcams that instead used FIREWIRE but even then, they eventually switched to USB.

And there were cameras that weren't just for Webcam use but also for DIGITAL CAMERA use just by themselves.... sort of like a hybrid of the tech being used

Like this INTEL POCKET PC CAMERA from the year 2000.

Laptops originally had no webcams installed into them

until later in the 2000s and by the late 2000s such as 2009, they became more common to be installed on laptops.

Throughout the beginnings of 2020 and beyond, the Webcam would become a highly essential piece of Computers due to the heightened use of Remote Work from Home initiatives as well as the then mandatary SOCIAL DISTANCING so as a result, WEBCAMS became quite scarce during the beginning of the COVID-19 Lockdowns.

But why buy Webcams when practically almost anybody could just use the one built in their laptop?

Well the issue was that LAPTOPS, even high-end ones, often are stuck with CRAPPY 720p Webcams due to the need to cram the components on the thin display panels so that leaves little to no room to cram the more essential 1080p HD or 2160p 4K resolution sensors on the panels without further compromises or further jacking up the price.

I'm no stranger to webcams as I've had some that I used in the past, all of them USB.

My current Webcam that's connect to my MAVERICK FALCON 7900RT build is a 

CREATIVE LABS LIVE! CAM SYNC 4K USB Webcam with Backlight Compensation.

Here is the Webcam shown below in this photo of my build.....

This photo is dated October 7 2024 as this predates the

AMD RYZEN 9 9950X3D upgrade and I still had my Acer Monitor during that time.

I originally wanted one of the Logitech Webcams but I wanted one of the 4K models but they weren't available at the less than $200 price I was asking for so I instead went with this creative one since It was at a nice $70 I was asking for.

That and some of the Logitech ones had no lens cover which in my mind is highly preferred for privacy reasons.

There are Logitech 4K Webcams with lens covers but again, asking price was a bit much for my wallet.

Glad I touched on the subject of the origin of Webcams before DAVID FARQUHAR of THE SILICON UNDERGROUND could beat me to it.