The End of an Era...

There are few items of PC paraphernalia that you don't replace or fiddle with very often. Sure, you can keep a PC for 4-5 years without having to mess around with internal components and, with some luck, you can potentially get away with only messing around with a GPU upgrade in the 6-10 year period. I've never been that lucky and there have been component upgrades or replacements due to wear and tear over the last 10 years. However, I have been using the same mouse during that period.

Now its time is up...

The mouse I purchased when putting together this PC in 2010 was a Razer Abyssus. However, Razer's image there is not representative of the mouse that I possess! My Razer Abyssus is the RZ01-00360100 model which actually looks the same (almost) as the currently available Abyssus Essential. 

You can see an unboxing of it via a VERY OLD Linus Tech Tips right here.

This is harkening back to a simpler time, where owning a mouse did not require installing software in order to achieve all of the functions of the mouse. The Abyssus came with two switches to control polling and sensitivity - very useful attributes, especially when changing between games and graphics software such as Photoshop.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, the mouse is now dying. In December, the right button began to respond at less than 100% of the time and now, a month later, the left button is deciding to double or triple activate as well as not activating on each button press. Sure, it's possible that I could take apart the device and clean the contacts but I don't see any way of easily doing that without removing the mouse feet. Speaking of which, the PTFE feet have been worn down so much that the plastic between the two front feet is actually worn down and scratched because there's no longer any clearance from the body to the feet.

I really can't complain about the longevity of this particular mouse. I think it's probably the longest-serving mouse I've actually owned... but that brings me to an interesting point: Ignoring the first pre-built I purchased in 1999, I've only ever purchased four mice models.

Yes, the image looks crap... but I'm upscaling from very low quality jpgs and my photoshop-foo is pretty weak today (I can't be bothered making the image look better)... For those who are not accustomed to this mouse, this is a Logitech MX310

The first mouse I actually bought on purpose was the Logitech MX310, an ambidextrous mouse with a decent amount of buttons, polling and sensitivity (300 dpi). It was with this mouse that I played Quake 3 Arena semi-competitively and then replaced it with the same model after a frustrated slamming-on-desk incident during competitive play. Yes, I can be that kind of person - though I've never thrown a controller at a wall or TV ;).

It was such a long time ago that I don't remember what set me on the path to choosing the MX310 but there was certainly a point when I had to switch hands and the symmetry of the mouse came in handy. Since that point, I kept to mirrored, ambidextrous mice for gaming. However, after all that intensive playing from Q3A, capturestrike and whatnot I suffered from some sort of carpal tunnel and switched to a vertical mouse. I found Evoluent and was decently happy with that until 2010 when I switched to the Razer but upon recurring symptoms a couple of years later looked for something new.

The reason for that was the Evoluent was heavy and chunky and it wasn't great for playing games. That's when I stumbled upon the Anker vertical mouse. This mouse was very light, comfortable (more comfortable than the Evoluent) and had great responsiveness for playing games, despite being relatively low dpi (1600 dpi) compared to the Razer and other "gaming" mice.

One further fact is that the Anker is super cheap - around £10 - €15. Compared with around €40-60 for the Razer, or €70-90 for the Evoluent... it is certainly the best value mouse I've EVER encountered. 

Again, I apologise for the quality of this image... Anyway, this is the wired Anker Vertical mouse (right-handed edition).

In fact, I've purchased this mouse a grand total of four times - not because the mouse broke but because I've given them as gifts to other people in order for them to have better wrist health. There's also a left-handed version of this mouse (which is obviously not ambidextrous... which I consider is the only real negative of the model) which is nice.

So, now my Razer is dying, what model of mouse am I purchasing? Of course, it's another Anker. Quite frankly, I'm looking forward to continuing to use a relatively simple mouse that doesn't require software to work. I'm sad to see the formidable Razer die but their latest mice tend to require registered software to be fully enabled - something which I cannot get behind.

This truly is the end of an era... my gaming mouse for the last decade is dying and I'm switching to a vertical mouse which will change the way I play a little since there is a small amount of acclimatisation to get used to the orientation change.

Let me know if there's a favourite mouse you use in the comments below or if you wish to switch in the immediate future to a new model of mouse from the one you've been using for a while.