Are Razer mice worth the extra money?

[desura]

Looks like Razer mice command a premium. Are they that much better?

 

[Warfighter]

I have been using a razer naga for about 4 years now and I have to say I completely love their products. The quality is outstanding, and I love the fact that you can sync all your key binds in the cloud synapse software they have. The main games I play is arma 2, 3 and dayz and I have found many uses for all the thumb buttons on that mouse. I have also used in it in many MMO's and it's honestly hard to beat the convenience of it in my opinion.

 

[BrightCandle]

Really depends on the model, some of them have been awful (the Mamba) some of them are fine and others are actually quite good (Deathadder 2013).

 

[desura]

are there lots of fakes? I see lots on ebay.

 

[smackababy]

It does depend on the product. Something like the Naga is pretty much amazing. I've had one since the first model was released (on my second one now) and I love it. Other products though, like their mechanical keyboards, aren't worth it IMO. You can get a higher quality DAS, for instance, for the same price.

They have some pretty good peripherals for consoles too. Their fightstick is on par with the MadCatz TE.

I have been debating picking up an Orb Weaver as was going to this weekend, actually.

 

[Subyman]

I think they are good mice. I used a Razor Diamondback for about 5 years until my cat chewed the cord up. I ended up getting a Logitech G500 due to a special on Amazon, but I found Razor's are high quality. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one.

 

[desura]

Taipan vs Deathadder?

I'm a righty so I don't see the point of the Taipan design. However, after having had several mouse sensors go bad on me, the dual sensor of the Taipan is very appealing, hopefully would be more durable over the long haul.

 

[BrightCandle]

The Naga seems to be well made, the Deathadder is a decent sensor (the only mouse in their range that doesn't accelerate) but its not very durable and they tend to break. The mamba was broken form the outset for a lot of people and they rarely lasted a year.

Razor makes a variety of products, some are good, some are terrible, you need to ask about specific models (I am not going to iterate their entire line up with good and rubbish ratings for you).

 

[pauldun170]

Had a diamond back for years. It was a good mouse but finally started flaking out on me a few weeks ago.

After searching around and trying to decide between the Steelseries Rival and a Deathadder I ended up with a more favorable impression of the Steelseries than the Razer offerings.

That being said, I ended up not buying either of them. I picked up a logitiech G100s for $25 on sale.
Works just fine.

 

[DigDog]

Hey;
a few things, in order.
1) i have bought 4 razer mice from eBay - none were fakes. some were cheap, yet they worked perfectly, took razer drivers and are worth the money, yes.

2) the deathadder has been, for a few years now, the n1 mouse for mousesports. weird shape, heavy, but great sensor.

3) razer quality used to be worse, now is on par with pretty much every manufacturer out there.

4) mousemats tend to offer as much, if not more, advantage over casual users, as gaming mice do.
i recommend the goliathus CONTROL edition, get the Large one. from ebay or amazon.

5) if you can spend just a bit more, grab a Zowie FK1; i just got mine and it's gotta be the best mouse i have ever laid hands on. better than the DA, Abyssus, and G400s. even better than the WMO 1.1a with overclocked ports.


Hi candle

 

[Davegod]

I just broke my Logitech G400. I liked it but maybe a little fragile and I can only get a G400"s" now, which would take a few days to be mailed to me. I do have my eye on the Razer Deathadder, which I can get from a local shop, but at almost 2x the price.

Is it worth the premium? (To me probably would be if it is straight up better mouse + build quality)

edit: I still have my old fUnc sUrface mouse mat, the original one with the orange rubber holder. Quite worn but awesome pad.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I am using a Razer DeathAdder........I believe it is more responsive that any other mice I have used for gaming! But, to answer your question -- once you get use to it......I have found it to be no better than other top quality mice I have used in the past!!

 

[bononos]

The Razer deathadders took a few generations to iron out all the kinks. So they weren't that good from the start.

 

[Rinaun]

I like how someone called the deathadder 2013 a good mouse. Please, don't use AT for mice. Go look up Overclockers or the other places that have specialty forum sections for mice.

FYI, the deathadder 2013 is probably one of the worst "expensive" mice I've used. Every other deathadder is fine, but the deathadder 2013 ergonomic model (60$) has the worst software and doesn't do 1:1 very well. All I know is I wouldn't buy this mouse again. I'd suggest a steelseries or Logitech (overpriced but the software works well). If you can get an older deathadder, they were great mice and you can use older drivers.

 

[XavierMace]

I've owned multiple Razer products and my general feeling at the moment is their lower end stuff is better than the high end. My Naga has worked perfectly for quite some time now and both of the Lycosa's I've bought are still going strong. However I've had software issues with my Deathstalker Ultimate since day one. At home I can either not install the drivers and have a perfectly functioning basic keyboard with no macro's or anything, or I can install the drivers to get the full functionality but have to deal with keys randomly software "sticking". At work I only get the basic option because their software requires an active internet connection to use at all and is being blocked by the corporate firewall which is dumb beyond belief.

 

[DigDog]

I like how someone called the deathadder 2013 a good mouse. Please, don't use AT for mice. Go look up Overclockers or the other places that have specialty forum sections for mice.

Hi.

please take your pick;

CS forums, quake forums, esreality, mlg forums, blacklight forums, tribes forums, planetside forums.

every single congregation of fps gamers recommend the DA over any other mouse.
http://imgur.com/gallery/LFrp5aH

but maybe the vast majority of dreamhack winners should have asked you first.
let's tell people to not come to AT - a forum with educated, mature people who have experience in the technical side of gaming - and instead lets direct them to a shop's website where they can buy very l337z0r game gear.
like, idk, the R.A.T. (lol)

 

[XavierMace]

Hi.
http://imgur.com/gallery/LFrp5aH

Thanks, I needed a good laugh.

 

[Rinaun]

Hi.

please take your pick;

CS forums, quake forums, esreality, mlg forums, blacklight forums, tribes forums, planetside forums.

every single congregation of fps gamers recommend the DA over any other mouse.
http://imgur.com/gallery/LFrp5aH

but maybe the vast majority of dreamhack winners should have asked you first.
let's tell people to not come to AT - a forum with educated, mature people who have experience in the technical side of gaming - and instead lets direct them to a shop's website where they can buy very l337z0r game gear.
like, idk, the R.A.T. (lol)

First, don't pull the pro card. I don't care what the pros use, because most pros are given their equipment by a vendor who sponsors them. I've seen enough pros use sub-standard gear and win matches just fine to know that by now. This isn't even counting I've WORKED in that industry and know how sponsorships work. I've helped several prominent streamers get one of every steelseries/logitech item to show off publicity-wise. That's almost like asking a pro during a twitch stream what equipment he uses. I know when Hiko gets asked he rolls his eyes and links his sponsors (logitech, etc).

Secondly, it's BEEN noted on overclock and other forums that the newest deathadders have more issues compared to older models, and synapse is pretty horrible for mouse software. Go read the ENTIRE razer deathadder 2013 compiled thread on overclock. For 60$ there ARE better mice that don't rely on a adware-styled software programs for mouse support. If you like it/the mouse design/the sensor, that's fine. As someone who has owned 5 deathadders, I felt the 2013 was a downgrade from the 3g and I won't be spending another dime on razer products for a while.


The Deathadder 2013 has interpolated DPI and therefore a stupid amount of mouse smoothing due to their anti jitter correction to support the high dpi which still skips pixels anyway. if you can score an early 1800 dpi deathadder or 800/1800 BIG salmosa you'd get a better performing mouse. mind you the Salmosa has prediction, though I'd take that over the ridiculous smoothing of DA 2013.

http://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/1rp0yn/rival_vs_deathadder_2013/

The DA 2013 is a great mouse, only to be let down by the horrible software (Razer Synapse) tied to it... They should revert back to using the legacy drivers for their new mice. I heard there are problems with the firmware implementation having too much "smoothing" (where the sensor smooths out cursor movement on high dpi), causing unnecessary input lag as well. IMO, the SS Rival, G400S or G502 is a better choice.

http://www.hltv.org/forum/635830-razer-deathadder-2013

This isn't even counting how 2-3 friends have had the same issue as I did with my deathadder; when you have the left mouse button clicked and try to scroll the wheel becomes bound by the left mouse buttton plastic due to poor alignment. It was like this on every model I've seen so far in person, and I ended up having to fix it by taking an xacto blade and removing 1/2mm of plastic. I can take pictures for further evidence, as well as show you other deathadders with the same issue.

TLDR I'd rather have a mouse that doesn't spam drivers to me every time I unplug and replug it back in, or one that doesnt require me to fix its manufacturing flaws. How hard is it to shave off 1/2mm or simply align the product right?

 

[BrightCandle]

I personally would choose a Zowie, a roocat Kone optical, Logitech G400s and quite a few others before a deathadder 2013. That isn't that its a bad mouse, its just not a great one.

 

[DigDog]

this has nothing to do with sponsorship. since the pros on their game forums, clan sites, ingame and in non-sponsored lan events tend to recommend one of those 5 mice. hardly anyone uses anything other than a minox, zowie, DA/Aby, g400/s, or one of several legacy mice, including WMO, IE3, mx500.

i'd rather take cypher's advice than yours. or strenx, rapha, cooller, cat, heartless, or another half hour of typing out famous names.

oh and re: the interpolated DPI, you use the DA at 1800 dpi, and 500hz. *everyone* knows that.

 

[Samus]

I've had good luck with Razor and SteelSeries mice. They've always outlasted (and felt better) than Logitech mice to me. Not much of my Logitech stuff has lasted very long...speakers, keyboards, mice, headphones, joysticks...but my old Harmony is still good.

SS software is kind of quirky but if you get a high-end model like the Sensei Pro, the mouse it completely programmable from an LCD on the bottom of the mouse using the buttons ON the mouse...rendering the software redundant. A good thing in many cases because 1:3 times the software crashes on me after opening.

Razor seems to gear themselves to MMO gamers. Like SS, they only have a few FPS-oriented series of mice, and I am really happy with my Deathadder. My hands are a little small for it, so I find myself gravitate back to the Sensei (I own both a Pro and a RAW) more often. But honestly, the Deathadder is more comfortable for longer periods because it is a larger mouse.

I'd avoid Razor keyboards. The one I owned (Lycosa) had random disconnects and after researching it, hundreds of people had the same issue. The Blackwidow keyboard is built on the same flaky hardware and has created another group of pissed off owners.

As far as headsets, Steelseries and Turtlebeach are my go-to. Steelseries has a new wireless headset that hasn't been released yet (and is also going to be $300!) but I may consider replacing my Turtlebeach PX3's, which are simply excellent for <$100. They're better in every way than my Logitech G930's and were half the price.

 

[Samus]

I also wanted to say the best way to set these mice up is disable all acceleration and "smoothing" in windows "Mouse" control panel, and set the sensitivity up about 6 notches from the left (which would put it just about in the middle) and adjust the DPI from there to get the mouse to track at the speed you want.

The whole idea of customizing DPI is consistency, not really accuracy. Even 400DPI is pretty damn accurate and expert gamers can't really notice accuracy above 800DPI. So basically its just a way to "standardize" adjusting the tracking speed instead of using some arbitrary slider bar across games.

Google/youtube how to setup your mouse. Even a $10 Microsoft Mouse can be setup as good as a $60 Deathadder...but the Deathadder does have a great shape and very responsive sensor.

There are some things the Steelseries mice let you do that you can't on the Deathadder. One of the things I like is the Z-tracking customization; you can tell the sensor when to cutoff tracking when you life the mouse in millimeters from 0-10. This is REALLY useful when using a porous mouse surface like plastic. Another feature I use is deceleration. They have a funny term for all this stuff, but the deceleration detects when your making fine movements, like sniping, and momentarily reduces tracking speed during these moments. It's highly customizable...I couldn't snipe for the life of me in BF4 until I started using this feature. It might be considered cheating in competitive gaming because the mouse is automatically aiding your aim.

 

[desura]

Just got the Razer Deathadder.

I'm liking it. It's larger than most mice I've used. Seems pretty solid and light. I like how the drivers are built into the mouse.

Only thing I wish is that it had a dpi button on it. Not that big a deal, but still.

 

[gus6464]

I have 3 razers and all have been champs.

Naga
Naga Hex
Diamondback 3G

Got my Naga back in 2008 and the Naga Hex 2 years ago. The Naga works just like the day I got it.

 

[DigDog]

Just got the Razer Deathadder.

I'm liking it. It's larger than most mice I've used. Seems pretty solid and light. I like how the drivers are built into the mouse.

Only thing I wish is that it had a dpi button on it. Not that big a deal, but still.

w.a.h.t.