When you get into your car, everything is the way you want it. The seat is just the right distance from the pedals, the steering wheel is at a comfortable height, and the mirrors are aligned so a mere swivel of the head in either direction will give you maximum vision. If you're a gamer, you probably have similar conditions when it comes to your computer. Not only are your peripherals the way you want, but the actual settings of your computer are likely highly customized to increase performance when playing games. For instance, the sensitivity of your mouse can make all the difference in the world, and each gamer has their own preferred setting. If you were to go onto a gamer's computer and change the sensitivity of their mouse, all hell would break loose. Don't believe me? Try it. Keyboard, headphones, mouse and mousepad, like a well-oiled machine, a gamer will run flawlessly until you change or remove a part of their configuration. Knowing what to look for, how to buy, what to consider, or even other people's opinions of each of these parts is an integral part in the informed gamer's selection of his or her peripherals.

Today we look at mousepads; an often overlooked part of a gamer's setup. Go ahead, run your brand new Razer Diamondback or Logitech G5 over that rough wooden desk or dirty old card table. Mousepads have come a long way from the floppy cloth-covered pads that came with your parent's old Hewlett Packard, and believe it or not, they have a big impact on the gaming experience.

The Test
We will be comparing 10 of the most popular mousepads from several different companies in an attempt to provide you, the gamer, with the information necessary for purchasing your next gaming surface. As is the case with any good experiment, this one has a control. The control in an experiment is the variable that remains unchanged throughout the testing of several other changing variables in order to maintain a standard on which the changes can be analyzed.

Unless otherwise specified in the individual product description, each surface was tested using ball, optical, and laser mice for compatibility and performance was subjectively analyzed in each of the following applications: Counter-Strike 1.6 (gaming), Quake 4 (gaming), Adobe Photoshop CS (image manipulation), and basic desktop use. To reduce the amount of variables in the experiment, laser and ball mice were only used briefly on each surface to test for full compatibility, while an optical mouse was used to formulate opinions. The specific optical mouse used for this experiment was the Logitech MX310. The control mousepad being used for comparison is a standard cloth mousepad that was purchased from Best Buy.

Table of Contents:

Func sUrface 1030 Archetype
Icemat 2nd.EDITION
SteelPad S&S
Razer eXactmat
X-ray Thunder8
X-ray Aqua3
Razer Mantis - Control
Func F-series F30.R
Razer Mantis - Speed
X-ray Aqua2