|
Testing & Conclusions
**click to enlarge**
I
spent the better part of a week abusing the Ripper XL with many bouts of
FarCry and Unreal Tournament 2004. I used four different mice: a Razer Viper,
an old Sony ball mouse, a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer and a small Targus
optical mouse that has been modded with a blue LED. Of this crowd, only the
Sony is PS/2 powered, the rest are all USB. As the Viper already features
Teflon feet and I only had enough Dotz for three mice, I tried them out on the
Targus, Sony, and Microsoft mice. I spent a bit of time playing a bit with
each mouse beforehand to help gauge the difference that the Dotz made.
**click to enlarge**
The
Razer Viper was a very happy camper on this pad. Vipers have been known to
have some weird jitter problems when used with lower resolution on certain
mouse pads, and the Ripper XL is certainly not on that list. The action was a
bit nicer that with my older Xide Pad, but not nearly as nice as with the
Razer eXactmat.
**click to enlarge**
The
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer was surprisingly the least affected on this
pad. I’m pretty sure it has to do with the weight of this beast…easily the
heaviest of the four and almost twice the weight of its nearest competitor.
The only mouse that was louder was the generic Sony, no surprise given that it
is a ball mouse. The Mad Dotz were also not very effective on the Intellimouse
Explorer, and actually made it a bit noisier. Once again, I’ll point to the
weight…you’ll see what I mean with the next two mice.
**click to enlarge**
The most night and day performance change was
with the generic Sony ball mouse. This one is only still in my collection
because it was built well, and has stood up to a lot of abuse since I got it
with a VAIO desktop back in the day. Starting out, it felt and tracked like it
was supposed to, but not nearly with as much panache as its higher end
brethren. The Mad Dotz changed that dramatically, making the only resistance
the ball itself. As a long time user of optical mice, this presented an
interesting tactile feedback…some graphics designers out there might even
prefer this setup to optical due to the increased control.
**click to enlarge**
This Targus mini mouse was added in to test the
Ripper XL’s compatibility with the ever-popular “Blue LED” mouse mod. This
particular one was modded with a 2600 micro candela (mcd) LED with a draw of
about 20 milliamps. It’s the smallest and lightest in this crowd, although the
Viper only weighs a little bit more. The Targus performed well on the Ripper,
even with its modification. The Mad Dotz also managed to work some magic here,
making this light little mouse a surprisingly smooth performer on the Ripper
XL.
Conclusions
XTrac has done a really great job with the
Ripper XL. It’s massive, has solid performance, and certainly won’t send you
to the soup line to own one. Generally these can be found online for less than
twenty dollars. This pad is so massive you’ll probably never use all the space
– I’ve had a hard drive sitting on it waiting to be used in a review, and it
never once got in the way! The Mad Dotz are also a good product, but one must
put a little thought into how they are employed. I would certainly suggest
them to someone who is unsatisfied with a generic and/or lighter mouse looking
for a little more performance at low cost. EM Recommended!
Make sure to check out the
XTracPads website for information on this product.
|
Pros |
Cons |
- BIG!
- Performance/cost
- Blue LED compatible
|
- Might not fit on your desk
- Dotz not very effective on heavy mice
|
Questions? Comments? Discuss them here!
|
