Out of Pod Experience

My old Logitech Trackman FX trackballs are starting to go. It's time for something new and improved, but I haven't bought a new peripheral in years and I'm a little out of the loop. I think I have it narrowed down to a few but I could use some advice from EvE gamers, since a lot of you are technically savvy.

As it stands, these are my top choices in order of preference:

Cyborg R.A.T. 7 Infection
Gets low marks for dependability, but I figured if I got 2 year insurance that would prevent me from getting stuck with a lemon. Gets very high marks for accuracy and features.

Logitech G9x
Tops out on several PC magazine ratings. High customer satisfaction.

SteelSeries Sensei - Fnatic 62152
People who have it seem to like it. In several places people were saying they liked it better than their R.A.T. mice.

GIGABYTE GM-KRYPTON
The last model got very high marks but I haven't seen a lot of reviews for this. It is cheap though...

So I need a good gaming mouse that also rocks in Photoshop. Anyone have any suggestions? Is there another mouse I should be looking at? Thanks for any replies...

When buying peripherals, always buy logitech. Always.

That said, the logitech mouse you have in your list looks a little over the top, and oh god, that cyborg is pretty much woman repellent. My MX518 has never let me down, its pretty damn perfect and built to last.

I can help with that. I have 5 of them. There's a little notch on the button component itself that gets worn down and makes the contact with the big plastic buttons kind of iffy. If you take the trackball apart, you can use an xacto blade and shave off that nub... it will buy you some time. I did that and bought myself about another two years. Then I went in and braced the back of the internal button/sensor with some fat foamy double sided tape. That got me another two months. Now I'm salvaging right buttons from older ones and replacing the left buttons, which of course go first. I'm almost out of parts now though...

Edit... now that I think of it I've never thought to buy the internal button component itself... I'll get back to you if I find the component. It shouldn't cost more than 50 cents...

Oh, wow. Thanks for that. I actually have two; I'll have to try some of these.

To actually offer some advice in return, I've heard great things about the G9; I've never heard any complaints from my friends who use them.

If you want to go with another trackball, I'd suggest going with Kensington.
http://www.kensington.com/kensington/us/us/p/1444/K64325/expert-mouse%C2%AE.aspx
The expert mouse is incredibly large, and easy to use if you have big hands; it's what my dad prefers, though it's a bit much for me.

The orbit, on the same site, is generally comparable to logitech, though it lacks a third button and is a bit of deal breaker for me. Don't go with the wireless version, the touch-scroll-wheel around the trackball is far to sensitive.

Win \o/
Beats getting limp wrist from a mouse. Plus I get 2x the performance out of battlefield games, gives me top match ranks.


Yeah and I have a box or orbits, too. No parts left there lol

I haven't had to do repairs on my trackman yet, first one. I'm sure it'll be an informative read. I could probably write the book on orbits though, including Micky Moused substitute-part rebuilds lol
And w/ duct tape.
If you cant fix something with duct tape, it probably wasn't worth the money in the first place.

I think I might get that one in addition to another...

But for all you Trackman FX users... man have I got a solution to your problems...

The maker of the right and left button micro switches was absorbed by panasonic... so they arent making that exact switch anymore. However, I found a microswitch that is identical and will work. I'm linking it here. There are also waterproof versions available for a few extra cents.

...but guess what? I had a revelation when I was looking at the internal components of my Trackman FX. Logitech removed the metal switch cover when they built the mouse. Know why? Because leaving it on would dramatically reduce the long term failure rate. That's right... Logitech designs for planned obsolescence. It seems crappy american engineering isn't limited to our cars. Man was I livid when I realized this... but the good news is if you need to replace the switch, its a relatively easy soldering job. If your problems are minor, you don't even need to replace the f***ing switch! You can just buy one of these switches I linked and pull out the metal cover and stick it on the switch you have! It will totally solve the problem! It's such an easy fix it's stupid. I'm going to be able to revive all of my Trackman FX mice! I've learned so much about the Trackman FX tonight I think I'm ready to build a steampunk version!

Anyway... I'll still put up a tutorial. Interestingly, while I was looking for detailed component information on this mouse I noticed this thread showing up in SERPs. I don't think anyone has figured this out.

I'm going to get an awesome new gaming mouse anyway though...

Razer is great for their tactile mechanical keyboards, considering IBM model M's are near impossible to get your hands on these days.

I can't say the same thing about their mice. They've got a bit too much gamer-gimmick going on there.

I have a Razor Naga and it helps a lot. Have a lot of modules on it and drone commands.

I have good news
http://www.pckeyboard.com/

It's the original, so no nkey rollover