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RiscX POLL:
Begone mouse demons, The power of Mouse Maxx compels you!
Mouse pad review: PCToys Mouse Maxx 100si
For most geeks the main reason to buy a new mouse pad is to help them claim their spot at the top of the LAN Gaming Party Frag Fest Mountain.
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Then there are people like me, ok yea i'm a geek too but my sole purpose is not to just be king of the LAN party mountain but to also have a reliable and kewl looking mouse pad which performs and functions to the best of it's mouse-scape ability for work as well as play.
Before I jump into the meat of this mouse pad review let me just preface a little of what prompted me to quest for the ultimate mouse pad.
MOUSE DEMONS TAKE POSSESSION
Last year, (close enough), I won a free mouse pad at MacWorld 2003. In the gaming area Nvidia had a Rep. throwing out a few free mouse pads and my head happened to be in the right path of one he threw. The mouse pad looked kewl enough and I retired my old $0.89 dirty cloth mouse pad I had since when all mice had balls. My current mice line up are the standard Optical/USB Logitech two button 1 scroll wheel mouse and the Kensington Optical Elite mouse.
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One "abnormal'" occurrence that immediately cropped up when using this pad was several times in a single hour of use my cursor would jump and disappear to the far corners of my screen. At first I played its hide-and-seek game but after a few months I grew tired of the game and started to take out all my frustrations on my poor mouse. Not a good thing to do at all. I would even notice on occasion my mouse cursor would slightly move all by itself pixel by pixel , sort of spazzing out, without my hand even on the mouse! Seemed like my mouse was possessed. So after I had a young and old priest perform an exorcism on my mouse I tried a different mouse thinking the optics or cabling was jacked up on the "possessed" mouse. But to my astonishment the mouse demons persisted on and on. I even played with various system settings and installing numerous 3rd party mouse drivers which pushed me deeper and deeper into the dark mouse abyss. I finally thought, "damn, guess it's time I laid off the Bawls for a while."
I pulled my old dirty bastard raggedy mouse pad outta the trash just to see what would happen and low-and-behold my crazy mouse movements subsided. Hmm, very interesting, seems the mouse pad surface has a freakin' HUGE affect on how well the optics in mice perform or track. And just so you don't think I'm a total waste case a friend has the same possessed mouse pad from Nvidia on his desk top with the same demonic cursor spasms as well.
Now please don't get me wrong, this isn't a bash fest on Nvidia or their fine "free" mouse pads. But more of a quest to discover the best mousing surface/pad I could find for my optical mice. So my research into questing for the state-of-the-art mouse pads began.
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THE SEARCH FOR THE GREAT MOUSE PAD
I found several mouse pad companies that claim superior mouse tracking, comfort and kewl-ness factors. Most are aimed directly at the high-end PC gaming community since precise cursor performance can mean the difference of sniping your enemy in the left cornea of his eye or sniping the wall ten-feet from your enemies head. Some of the extreme mouse pad companies are fUnc Industries, Everglide, Ratpadz Steelpad, Icemat Speed-pad, XTracPads and there's even a few mouse pad mods I stumbled upon. I read several reviews giving Everglide mouse pads some of the highest marks for mice tracking performance. A little more googling and I came across www.pctoys.com who had some kewl looking mouse pads called Mouse Maxx at very reasonable prices. I then noticed that their mouse pads looked rather familiar. In fact these are "PcToys" re-branded Everglide "Giganta" and "Attack" mats. Everglide mats are amongst the best you can buy as reported by many reputable computer and PC gaming sites. So I decided to give these kewl looking, rave reviewed mouse mats a whirl.
GETTING IT
PCToys shipped out the Mouse Maxx pads, 100si and 70si, and I received them in just a few days. The Mouse Maxx comes in a nice package and looks really kewl with its aggressive flame design. It measures roughly 11.5-inches wide by 9.5-inches tall giving you approximately 100-inches of mouse-scape pleasure. This is great for gamers who on occasion need to swing their mouse wide for greater fragging ability. The material of the Mouse Maxx is slightly grainy with a special slick polymer surface which is also extremely rigid so the mice pads do not bend easily.
USING IT
I have been using the Mouse Maxx mouse pad for a few months now. The pad is a pleasure to use with no mousing abnormalities to report. Heck, in fact my mouse gaming skills seem to have sharpened up a bit, but then again maybe it's just positive thinking, and the young and old priests hanging out in my bedroom. My mouse glides effortlessly, smooth as silk across my mouse pads landscape with no cursor jumping or "spazzing" to report. I don't plan on using any other pad besides my Mouse Maxx for work or play. Besides, nothing quite looks kewler than flames surrounding your mouse.
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WHAT I LIKED
It performs outstanding, looks too kewl, and it's not ridiculously expensive. A excellent mouse pad that performs flawlessly and sent my mouse demons back to beelzebub's lair. For something you use soo much it's worth every nickle.
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WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
I still sometimes lose while playing a quick match of Unreal Tournament 2003. Seriously, not a thing.
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out of 5!
OVERALL/SUGGESTIONS
This is simply by far the best mouse pad I have ever owned or used. It recieved a 5 out of 5 riscx rating. If you need precise or perfect mouse movement and tracking or you're a serious PC gamer and want that perfect mouse tracking edge then this is the mouse pad you need. I did find it quite funny that a mouse pad with flames on it no less rid my mouse of its demons.
LAST WORD
Ohh, so what ever happened to my possessed Nvidia Mouse pad? Click here to find out.
Comments/Questions? E-mail Riscx
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