When you’re gaming on a PC or a Mac sometimes a good peripheral can make all the difference. When you point your cursor somewhere, you want to make sure you hit your target and not your teammate.

I’ve almost exclusively purchased Logitech mice in recent years, but now I can say I may not go back.

Read on for my review of the Razer Lachesis.

The Razer Lachesis provides precise movements.

I’ve been a Logitech fan and have purchased five of their mice (including the MX500, MX518 which were wired and the MX 700, MX1000 and most recently the MX Revolution which were wireless.)  When my Revolution broke after a “frustrating gaming session” it put me in the market for a new mouse.  Instantly I was drawn to the new MX1100, Logitech’s update to their wireless line.  It has gotten great reviews.  There was only one problem I had with it: the stand-alone mouse was not rechargeable.  You had to spring for the keyboard/mouse combo to get the feature which to this point had been standard on the wireless mice I purchased.

While I was looking for a new mouse I stumbled upon Crunch Gear’s Mouse Review Week.  It seemed like perfect timing.  I checked out the reviews and along with a couple of others ended up going with the Razer Lachesis which was not in the review week rundown.  I chose the Lachesis for a few reasons, namely it’s quick (4000 DPI & 1ms response time) and I really like the way it felt in my hand in the store.  Also between the two mice I was looking at (the other was the SteelSeries Ikari Laser) the Lachesis ended up being cheaper by about ten bucks (it was on sale) and I could take it home right away from the store.

So far the experience has been great with the Lachesis.  With my gaming mouse pad, tracking is smooth and through many months worth of Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead I’ve liked my results.   The mouse went where I wanted it to and had a responsive touch.  There are a sizeable amount of options for DPI and response time(here’s a good guide for what that means and many other mouse options. Scroll down to 1.5 for DPI.)  I’ve chosen to go with the highest of each 4000 DPI and 1khz polling rate (which makes for a 1ms response time.)  You can certainly choose other options, but according to experts it’s best to go with the max and adjust sensitivity settings accordingly.

Every hand is different though and what might be comfortable for me may be completely awkward to you.  It’s always best to get your hands on a mouse before buy one.  I’d suggest either Circuit City or Best Buy as both have selections available.  On a similar Also it’s important to realize not everyone holds the mouse the same way.  Razer actually has a good definition of grips on their website.  I palm my mouse, while others use a fingertip grip or claw grip. (The guide explains all three.)

If you’re in the market for a mouse and you’re a gamer I definitely recommend checkout out the Mouse Review Week.  I chose to go with a different mouse than the favorite from those reviews, but they were definitely worth a watch and a read.

Have questions about something? You can email me at matt(dot)schuler(at)woodtv(dot)com. And for more, shorter updates, check out my Twitter by clicking on twitter.com/mattschuler.