One of my favorite things about having a PC is that when something breaks after a few years you have the option of either replacing it with the same part... or upgrading. Upgrading is awesome, not only does it usually end up improving your gaming experience, but let's be honest, it's always nice to get new toys.

This mouse is old and busted:



For the past month my nearly one year old son has gotten into the habit of attacking my Logitech MX510 optical mouse. By attacking I mean pulling it off the desk, yanking on the wires, and trying his best to shove the whole thing in his mouth. The result of this assault has been that it's started taking a shit on me, to the point that it has been performing worse than a crusty trackball at random points while using it. This is no good when you're leading a headshot across a battlefield.

So I did what had to be done. I loaded the family up into the car and headed to Fry's where I picked up a lovely Logitech G5 laser. Not only is it an outright upgrade in terms of sensitivity but it has lots of nifty options my MX510 did not. For instance I can now avoid the trouble of a light handed mouse by using the weights that come with the mouse (which are housed inside a metal case that says G5 on it... sexy). I can also switch between three different DPI settings with the push of a button on the mouse. If you're not sure what that means let me explain:

I'm playing an FPS and I'm running around the field. I'll want to use a lower DPI setting which allows for more mouse movement without the camera flying all over the place. I spot a target far away and zoom in while at the same time clicking the button to raise my DPI. This gives me more direct control over where the sight of my gun will be increasing the accuracy. This is very nice.

The other thing I like better than the MX510 is that it has a rough almost sandy feeling surface. During extended gaming sessions the mouse will not become slippery and hard to operate due to sweaty hands. Oh and if you're going to say "I've never had a problem with my mouse getting to sweaty to use" then let me tell you that you've never had an actual EXTENDED gaming session.

This mouse is new and sexy:


Now I'm sure some will point out that there are better mice for whatever reasons. On paper some may seem better but when taking into account that I've been using an MX510 for years and the basic design of the G5 is the same, there is not really an adjustment period. It's just using a better piece of hardware instantly.

Now I'm off to play with my new toy.