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Need PHAT Gaming Gear

sergeremi

Junior Member
I've nearly completed building my ultimate gaming system! Check it: 900 Socket A Thunderbird
ASUS A7V Mobo
128 MB PC133 Mushkin Rev2 Ram
Guillemot 64MB Geforce 2
Samsung 900NF
Pioneer 105S slot DVD drive
Plextor 12x/8x/32x CDRW
SoundBlaster Live Platinum
Klipsch Promedia Speakers

Now I am needing same gaming input devices. I am looking for the best in joysticks and gamepads, any recommendations! I'm not sure what most of my gaming will be, most likely a lot of FPS and realtime strats.
 
I love my MS intellimouse Explorer, but alot of people claim that there's a sort of choppiness in some FPS' when using this mouse at a high sensitivity level, personally I've never experienced this...
 
not bad, but if you REALLY want a 'phat' rig, go with 256 Mb RAM. Memory is a cheap way to make a huge difference with.

I love my Logitech Wingman Gaming Mouse, has great drivers, is very precise and feels good to use.
 
Feels just fine, but i garbaged it for a plain MS Intelli-mouse Wheel. Gotta have the scroll wheel for weapon changing - the "Gamer's Mouse" obviously was not created by a gamer.
 
I think the best gamepad is the Logitech Wingman Extreme Gamepad. I have this and it is a dream to play with. It has as ensor and everything and it was only like $35. Ive tried the ms gamepads and they just dont compare. The freestyle pro has an awkward shape and the original sidewinder doesnt have a sensor although it is pretty comfy. For a mouse you should look at the ms optical serious or the logitech cordless mouseman. Ill be getting the cordless mouseman cuz i hate pulling the cord of the mouse when theres not enough. If you have no problems with the cords the ms mice are your best bet.
 
want my honest opinion? I say ditch the Geforce 2 GTS 64MB, I mean man the 32MB already has bottle neck problems between the GPU, and the ram itself, adding the extra +32MB, did not increae overall performance, (barely only 2.1% more FPS's in UT according to Anands article of the Geforce 2 GTS 64MB) You could save some dough, and spend that on the 256MB of RAM, however, I want to wait till the ATI Raidon comes out, and let's see if ATI gets there **** together and gets some driver support out, if all goes well in the ATI kingdom, we may have a winner folks. Lets look at ATIs performance in the Video Editing and DVD department, very very well, now if they get there *** together they could mean business in the 3d gaming/applications business also, lets cross our fingers =)
 
I just did quite a lot of research on mice and talked to quite a few users of various mice, Logitech, Microsoft, Razer. The Razer Boomslang 2000 seems to be the best gaming mouse but everyone I talked to that owns it doesn't use it for day to day use, they just plug it in to game. I tried it and it was awkward.

I have had bad experiences with Logitech personally, so I threw them out. This is where a lot of people will disagree with me.

The Mouse Systems optical I gave a try and the special surface and having to hold it at the correct angle eliminated it. I also have to have the wheel.

I tried the cordless and talked to a few people that used them and found for some odd reason they suck for gaming. During game play they seem to briefly freeze for some unknown reason. This occured on 3 seperate systems.

The Microsoft Explorer and Optical I tested something that I had heard. When you move them really fast they lose tracking. Stinks for FPS.

I ended up settling for another Microsoft Intellimouse. I already have one. It is much more comfortable than the Microsoft Wheel Mouse but seems a little harder to find at least locally (paying shipping on a $20 item is just silly) I have one Microsoft Intellimouse that is a few years old and works just as well as the brand new one.

I hate giving Microsoft money but it really was the best mouse for me. Now if when using Logitech mice I didn't go through them every three months I might consider them. I kept thinking I was just having bad luck. However, after going through 3 in an 8 month period... I just had one at work that just died on me too. That one lasted almost a year. Also the Microsoft Intellimouse is one of the most comfortable mice in my hand. I now own 4 Microsoft mice. Two of them aren't in use. One of them is a bus mouse (Someone asked me if I wanted a Microsoft mouse, I said sure...) the other is a 2 button. The two button still gets used occasionaly when someone comes over and brings over there computer and forgot their mouse. It still works and it is like 5-6 years old. I like computer equipment that I choose to stop using on my own, not because it dies on me. I have not had a Microsoft mouse die on me.
 
As far as other equipment.

I love my CH F-16 CombatStick USB. I got pretty good with FreeSpace with it. However, for the last six months I have been hoping they would come out with the Pro Throttle. It seems like they haven't made any progress at all. You really want to go with USB for sticks because they are a lot more precise, the calibration is better, and the button support in games is better.

I haven't seen any good competition to the F-16 CombatStick. If Guillemot/Thrustmaster comes out with the F22 and TQS 2000 HOTAS set-up that will probably be better. However, one of my friends has the F22 Pro and F16 TQS and every times he uses them he spends about 1/2 hour or more getting them working and calibrated and assigning the buttons. It takes me about 2 minutes generally, sometimes the game doesn't have good defaults for all the buttons so I sometimes spend a couple minutes reassigning the buttons. It never takes me more than 5 minutes though.

If you don't currently play any games that use a flight stick I would wait until the next game you want it for comes out and see whether CH has come out with their Pro Throttle or whether Thrustmaster has come out with their HOTAS and which one is better then.

If you need a racing wheel Act Labs seems to make the best FF wheel. The good non-FF wheels are really expensive so unless you are really into racing they are probably more than you want to spend.

I own a Gravis gamepad that is nothing special, but have only needed to use it once. I don't play those types of games.
 
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