Mouse Pad Buyer's Guide for Gamers
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,768 words · ~8 min read
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welcome to my mous pad buyers guide for gamers featuring my personal collection
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of mous pads kick back and relax I'm about to blow your mousing mind and
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explain the real differences that matter between the more well-known pads and
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mats as well as a couple that aren't Pinterest and facebookies need not apply
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just use your desk or something
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The Cooler Master Nova touch TK utilizes genuine toer hybrid capacitive switches
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and is now available at a more affordable price click now to learn more
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okay so mous pad buyer guide that's that's like stupid just buy a mouse pad
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in the color that you want done that's it right yeah if you're a noob who plays
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Call of Duty actually there are subtle
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differences that have a substantial impact on your mousing experience there
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once was a time that mass pads really mattered older Optical sensors laser
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sensors had trouble tracking on a variety of surfaces like textures and
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colors so you needed a surface optimized for it these days Optical sensors can
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track almost as well as laser sensors on most surfaces so there you have it mouse
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pads actually don't matter video over
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well they might not matter in terms of tracking but there are things to
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consider when buying one most manufacturers product pages have
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irrelevant Buzz phrases like Smooth with
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maximum Glide and control but come on
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that's just not that useful well let's take a deeper dive and see what does
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matter when buying a mouse pad and give you a quick rundown of the various types
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of surfaces broken down by material first up are the cloth pads the qck has
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been the most widely used mouse pad for pro Gamers why well you want to be able
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to stop instantly even when Mouse is flying around High Glide speeds might
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make it hard to control your aim as the momentum might carry you over your
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target the qck has what I'll call medium
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to low Glide with movements coming to a stop pretty quickly the liftoff distance
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is about 1 to 1.5 CDs high this is the
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height that mice will stop tracking when you lift to reposition your mouse and it
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as it turns out mouse pads can affect this getting back to the qck it comes in
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a variety of sizes and two thicknesses Thin might offer more speed as the thick
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might cushion and absorb some of the downward Force but the qck heavy can
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give you a bit more of a consistent experience if you have small
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imperfections in your desktop the Corsair Vengeance mm200 has been out for
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a few years and at first glance looks a lot like the thick Q cks the liftoff
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distance is 1 to 1.5 CDs High just like
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the qck and it even feels like the Q CK
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with a tiny difference that actually has a big effect the qck has a fur that some
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cotton t-shirts have but the Vengeance doesn't without the fur the mm200 is a
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smoother surface that feels faster than the qck the mes pad also comes in a
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variety of sizes to fit your needs ranging from the small to the extended
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edition which is long enough to cover your keyboard mouse and thenen some the
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mm200 comes rolled in a hard cardboard tube like you get with a poster in my
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experience this prevents curling that can happen to other cloth pads that come
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rolled up in a smaller box package kind of like the goliathus package speaking
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of which the goliathus control and speed from Razer are rapidly gaining in
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popularity due in part to their aggressive Esports sponsorship campaigns
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the control has a thick and rough woven texture like a burlap sack but smoother
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both pads have a braided Edge to help prevent fraying and are thinner than
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most mouse pads the bottom is green rubber that does a really good job of
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keeping it from sliding around the speed version is more like a a regular cloth
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Pad but with a Slicker smoother feel which makes it feel faster than the
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other pads so far and according to the slow-mo it is actually faster the
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control despite the coarseness feels almost as fast both the speed and
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control have a liftoff distance of about 2 CDs so in spite of the graphic and
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difference in textures tracking is just fine although some mice do need to be
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recalibrated to work on the control due to the the rougher thicker weave next up
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is a throwback to lineus Circa 2009 if
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you were playing CS back when 1.6 was fresh you might remember this one before
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the qck Raiden Supreme the pure track Talent was the one associated with Pro
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gaming but not without controversy at
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the time the print design particularly the white one posed the tracking issue
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for some mice as I said earlier though sensors are actually really good now and
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you probably won't have an issue with it if you've bought a mouse in the last
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year or two here's a picture I tweeted of my desktop the LIF off distance is
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higher than the qck at 2 CDs versus one but it's about the same as the other pad
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so far the pure track Talent is the most comfortable mouse pad I've ever used
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it's like it's super soft on my wrist it's it's like Silk it's amazing it's
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also got the space for me to swing my ARM around and still provides enough
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stopping speed for my flick shots in Linus's ancient unboxing he thought it
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was too fast compared to the qck but it's just right for me it's weird though
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I thought it was faster than the qck 2 but according to the slow-mo it's
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actually kind of slower like quite a bit
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anyway while it lacks the fancy razor braiding it's still built to last this
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is a pure track from upstairs that definitely looks like it's been around
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for years and it still performs it's
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super thick and comes in two sizes standard which is actually larger than
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the extra large for most other mouse pads and a smaller version for desks
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with limited space now onto the hard pads they're not as popular but they
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definitely feel a niche for gamers who demand
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speed because the surface is hard and step force from the movement isn't
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absorbed and instead goes right into moving the mouse but just as we've seen
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with cloth pads the material plays a big part in exactly how fast fast the
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surface feels the destructor 2 is made
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of a hard rigid black polycarbonate with a rubber base that keeps the destructor
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from ever moving during normal use the rough and bumpy texture makes it really
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really fast it's among the fastest mouse pads I've ever used personally though I
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find it too hard to stop precisely and even worse the liftoff distance is 5 CDs
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when paired with my abyssus 2014 Mouse that's five times higher than the Q math
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if your mouse doesn't have adjustable liftoff distance you might actually find
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it unusable for low sensitivity gaming where you have to lift frequently on the
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other hand I find it great for productivity use and rtss or mobas
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because of the effortless Glide and reduced need for pinpoint Precision now
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for an entirely different kind of hard mouse pad the myonix ensus 320 it's made
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of aluminum instead of plastic it's cold to the touch and the edges can be hard
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on the wrist and it's got a very very smooth surface and because of that it's
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much slower than the destructor 2 and only provides meh levels of feedback the
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liftoff distance is not that different from cloth pads so it's definitely
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viable for something like csgo the funk 1030 is an interesting choice and might
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be good for those of you who are indecisive or like to change your
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surface depending on what you're doing this is a two-piece mouse pad there's a
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smooth plastic frame that has rubber pads on the bottom to keep it planted on
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your desk and the second piece is the mousing surface that has has two
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different sides this side is semi smooth
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flipping it around reveals the rough side that is similar to the destructor
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actually strangely enough according to our slow-mo test both sides provided
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similar speeds and were faster than the destructor 2 relatively new options are
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hybrid silicone pads they're called hybrid because they have the speed of
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hard pads but the control of cloth the
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bottom of the mous pads all feature a tacky smooth rubber surface that do an
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amazing job of keeping them on your desk the surface textures are very similar
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between the megasoma 2 and hero 3D the pattern is rough but not hard like
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plastic pads it's a soft silicone that provides a Glide almost as fast as the
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funk 1030 and Destructor 2 but with enough control to make stopping flick
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shots possible liftoff distance isn't dramatically affected like it is in the
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destructor 2 and their Glide speed is Comfortably fast I love the performance
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of all of the silicone pads but these are the only sizes they come in and
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they're simply not big enough for me to use if steel series razor rocket made an
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extra large like their cloth pads I'd buy one in an instant for the visual
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Learners out there we've handcrafted this chart plotting speed versus control
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of the mouse pads in the video check the description below if you want to take a
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closer look at the chart and comment below and let us know what part of the
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chart is perfect for you do you like it hard and fast or slow and controlled let
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me know I promise I won't judge you much like if you liked it dislike if you
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still hate me and if you want to support us you can find out how in the support
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us page in the Forum and if you want to talk to me tweet me at edel Yago oh and
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