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'lo,

Does anyone have any experience with wireless mice/keyboards? And if so, would you recommend any of them heartily?

I've had enough of all the tangled wires that so daintily slip behind the back of my desk, and would like to neaten things up a bit (but not too much - as then it'd almost look tidy)


Cheers

Wireless Mice and Keyboards are just good for one thing, because well they are wireless :D. No more dangly wires and you could use them from a distance i.e. perhaps laze on your bed and type or surfing the net etc. So yeah they are quite convenient at times.

But the one major setback about them and why I don't really like them is battery life. It is especially annoying when your mouse runs out of batteries whilst your playing a game for example. And there can be times where it is unresponsive or you feel as if something interferes with the infra-red signal, most probably something blocking it to the reciever as the main obvious example.

Since you game quite a bit Pig, that is probably the only thing you need to worry about with these wireless devices. It's then merely your choice if you want them. I personally still prefer corded and its pretty tidy for me since I just use cable ties to sort them out, although I can't say the same for anything else.

First and foremost this is not personal experience, but PCZone do a buyers guide of best hardware around and of the 3 mice they mention two are Logitech. The MX500 is however a corded mouse, but it's bigger sister the MX700 is cordless and batteryless - well not less, it holds two NiMh batteries because when not in use it resides in a charger. The downside of course is price weighing in at a street price of almost £47!

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products...,CONTENTID=4999

Wireless keyboard is great it is a curse wen the mouse runs out of batterys though best to get an optical one if ur gettin it wireless

I am not a great believe in cordless....

A while back i used to play red alert 2, and many times i got killed as the batteries died at the vital point...

Stick with corded slighty better response and just keep all the cables tidy, makes life 10 times easier!

mx700 = winn0r!!!1111 etc

had a Logitech natural wireless keyboard for a few years now - it came with a cordless desktop pro which though good suffered from the batteries running out every so often...I like the natural KB shape/feel so have stuck with it..
went with the MX700 and have had no probs....the KB batteries last for ever, and the mx700 recharges in its cradle...if I was buying now I would look very carefully at the cordless desktop MX set....

I have the mx700 also. No problems with it really. Battery life is good and has never stopped in a game. DPI and response time excellent - no lag. As wags says, may be able to get a nice keyboard/mouse bundle. I like the bluetooth offerings.

Only concern of mine is wireless interference with wifi routers - investigating this...

Microsoft do nice setups also. I like the 5 button mice, one button on either side, like my old trust mouse (good for rudder control in bf1942). MX700 has only 5 buttons configurable in games, and 2 extra are on left side (no so good for rudder control :()

If your mouse hasn't got enough buttons you might check out the Nostromo Speedpad N52 which sits under your left hand as oppose to your keyboard.

It's spiel says -

"Features
• 14 programmable keyboard-style buttons PLUS 2 thumb buttons
• An extra row of keys (over the n50), with presets for select games
• Mouse wheel for intuitive fragging and lightning-quick strikes
• 360-degree rotating mouse wheel with a switch
• 3 status LEDs for quick-checks of which shift state is active
• Adjustable, removable left-hand rest—adjusts to 2 settings or comes off to provide max comfort for any size grip
• Programmable, 8-way directional pad for 8 views and diagonal action
• Stable base that stays in place with internal metal weight and maximum-contact, rubber foot-pad, no matter how extreme your playing gets"

I'm yet to try one but I know a bunch of gamers who swear by it and it's potential 104 programmable functions
:P

(Though it's not wireless)

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage...E%2EingTools%2F

Personally I'd avoid anything wireless, especially when it comes to gaming.

Spooktooth said:

Me too ! I have an MS Intellimouse optical (wired) with 5 buttons and programme the 'extra' side buttons for leaning left and right on COD.

DanMaggot said:

I have the Nostromo Speedpad N50, which is the older model, with 10 buttons (the N52 has too many buttons for my simple brain :o ), plus a multi-directional pad. It is SO comfortable to use and can be programmed with 'profiles' for all your games. I use the multi-directional pad for stand-crouch-prone and all the other keys to varoius 'keyboard' actions. Playing COD, Doom3, etc with this is much better than using a keyboard. Recommended. :rolleyes:

One of the killing machines in my clan recommends the MX700 from Logitech....

"and the mx 700 uses FastRF cordless technology

Fast RF cordless technology gives the responsiveness of a corded connection, but without the cord"

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products...,contentID=7234

This guy is a most frustratingly impressive player so I kind of assume he knows where he's coming from as far as lag goes.

For myself I've just bought the younger corded version the MX510........and reserve judgement though it feels nice. Eight buttons....what am I gonna do with 8 buttons?!
Especially as I can find only 7.

:blink:

:P

I'd get the MX700 - three recommendations here would suggest it would be a sound investment, but...

Christmas is coming, I still need to get a new case (yes, still!), and there's also the scanner that I ordered a bit ago... So cordless implements shall have to wait for now..

Most microsoft wireless mice need the full power of a duracell (dunno how its spelt) so when the battery runs dow to about 1/2 power the mouse will stop working but they will usally run in a walkman for a couple of hours maybe more so you end up wasting all your batteries. But largly for the battery replacing reason i would just get one with a base that you put it on to charge ofter you've used it. Even rechargeable batteries need to be replaced because (mainly if their not Lithum) crystles build up inside the cells of the battery and prevent it from being charged properly but they don't have to be replaced often coz this takes a long time to happen.