There’s an old saying that goes something like ‘Spend good money on your bed and your shoes, because when you’re not in one you are in the other’. I wish I could find a way of putting something in there about spending good money on a PC gaming mouse, but it just doesn’t sound right, somehow.
I’ve had a long-running problem with an old Microsoft mouse I should have replaced a long time ago. In fact, I did replace it with a Gigabyte mouse, but then a Labrador puppy ate it, so I was forced to resort to my old faithful mouse that actually has “Basic Optical Mouse” in the product name. Why do I keep it?
This mouse has seen some good times and some bad. Though it avoided the puppy’s jaws of death, it really needs throwing away and replacing. The scroll wheel on the mouse has a mind of its own, and chooses which pages it wants to scroll, which causes a lot of frustration for a person who reads and writes for a living. Well, I genuinely like the way it fits in my palm, and we’re like old friends who don’t get along. No doubt you have an old peripheral laying around that you feel the same way about? No? Just me?
The fact is, I’m going to be buying Battlefield 2042, and I need a gaming mouse. So, finally, this age-old mouse (pictured below) requires upgrading, and has prompted this article for your enjoyment.
My Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse
Let’s Not Get Too Silly
I have a propensity to go to ridiculous lengths when it comes to buying new products in a hurry, so I aim to take my time with this purchase. But before we go on I would like to share a few of the worst offenders when it comes to gaming mice.
The award for worst looking gaming mouse goes to? In my opinion, that would be the Swiftpoint Z.
If you search for most expensive mice, you’ll probably see this thing staring back at you on the page with a price tag of around £175. This mouse looks like it could only be ergonomic if you are blessed with seven fingers on one hand, with at least one finger in the middle of your palm. Surprisingly, this mouse is rated very highly on Amazon:
Yes, okay, that review is not technically real.
When it comes to hideous looking mice, there are plenty to choose from, though:
Incredibly, I didn’t see anything there that took my fancy.
Best PC Gaming Mouse
I felt that Amazon would let me down when it came to finding the best gaming mouse, after I purchased one for my son and it broke after he played one game of Fortnite. I thought this strange, as I literally typed into Google ‘Best gaming mouse for Fortnite’. It turns out that Amazon has had a few issues with fake reviews and unscrupulous sellers. I like to think it was their fault and not my poor consumer awareness.
If you want to find out what people really think, then you should turn to YouTube comments. I checked out a review for the “Best Gaming Mouse 2021” by the channel Top 5 Best. I was not disappointed.
YouTube comment saying ‘Stuart Little beats every other gaming mouse’
Sadly, I was unable to find the gaming mouse this commenter referred to, but if you manage to find it please be sure to email us here at CCL.
With my search on YouTube prematurely exhausted, I turned to the font of all knowledge: the CCL Helpdesk. They told me to search our website and sort by popularity. *Genius!*
The most popular gaming mouse (according to our customers) is the MSI CLUTCH GM41.
With OMRON buttons rated for 60 million clicks, the MSI Clutch GM41 is what you would call durable. Weighing in at just 65 grams, this mouse can be claw gripped and palm gripped, and won’t be slipping from your grasp thanks to the diamond-patterned anti-slip grips. The mouse is ideal for those who have larger hands, and also comfortable in the smaller hand, thanks to the ergonomic design.
The cable supplied is an MSI FriXionFree Cable, which will reduce the amount of friction on your desk or other objects it comes into contact with.
MSI FriXionFree Cable
The GM41 is equipped with a high-end optical sensor with has extremely precise tracking and high-speed reliability at 400 IPS. The mouse also has extreme accuracy up to 16000 DPI with a 1ms polling rate.
· IPS – Inches per second
· 16,000 DPI – The efficiency of a mouse pointer measured in Dots Per Inch
· 1ms Polling Rate – The amount of time for the mouse to communicate movement to the PC
The RGB Mystic light is programmable, responding to DPI button & mouse wheel movement, and will sync to the pretty lights in your PC if you like that sort of thing. Check out my recent article on All White PC Builds if you want to get really jealous.
To control the DPI settings, lighting and other features the MSI GM41 is packed with, you simply open the MSI Dragon Centre software and play to your heart’s content.
The Best Gaming Mouse Money Can Buy
Sometimes, you just want the best quality and you don’t care about the cost. Also, sometimes you are just interested in how the other half live.
Gaming mice are important to professional gamers in that they need to be ergonomic, highly responsive, and have certain other necessary functions (depending on the type of game you play). Programmable mice have been around for a long time, and professional business users and gamers alike can benefit from shortcuts and oft-performed actions happen at the touch of a button.
With this in mind, I present the all-powerful Glorious PC Gaming Race Model O.
The world’s lightest RGB mouse at 67 grams, the Model O – or Odin to its friends – was developed alongside passionate gamers who knew exactly what they needed from their gaming mouse. Perfect for every occasion, the Model O is built for comfort, speed and precision, and is absolutely beautiful to look at with its dapper honeycomb shell.
The outer shell’s unique design allows air to flow to and from your sweaty claw as you play but retains its strength by being perfectly engineered by the clever people at Glorious PC Race, having been rigorously tested by hordes of happy gamers and e-sports players.
At under £50, the Model O is not hilariously expensive, but it is not cheap. I believe the phrase I’m looking for is “outstanding value for money”.
Runner Up For Best Gaming Mouse 2021
One other mouse was highlighted by our customers as being great value for money, packed with features for gamers, and is in fact one of our best sellers. That mouse is the Xtrfy M4 RGB Wired Optical Gaming Mouse – a very familiar design, very similar to the Glorious PC Gaming Race Model O.
The Xtrfy M4 is a lightweight mouse at 69g and is built with the right-handed gamer in mind. The ventilated design will stop the clammy experience, and the focus is clearly on ergonomics and performance in equal doses.
The M4 uses Pixart’s highest-performing gaming sensor, with on-the-fly sensitivity settings from 400 to 16 000 Real CPI. Moving the mouse around is easy-breezy, with PTFE skates for near zero friction. The mouse has a 400 IPS, and 125–1000 Hz polling rate, which translates to a maximum 1ms polling rate. The RGB is adjustable and you also have brightness controls all directly from the mouse. Similar to the MSI GM41, the Xtrfy M4 features the Xtrfy EZcord, to stop cord dragging and snagging issues.
Conclusion
All of the mice in this article have got plenty of excellent features and high performance in all departments, but my next mouse will absolutely be the Glorious PC Gaming Race Model O. This mouse has style by the bucketload, and performance that sets it apart from even the biggest brands like MSI.
Goodbye Microsoft basic optical mouse, you have served me well.
