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Great post OP. I'm not a great player (mid diamond, yup, pretty newb). For me, in any multiplayer game, how the controls feel determines how much fun I am having. If they feel sluggish, have any kind of delay, are inaccurate, or anything just feels a little off, I get very frustrated. This goes for ANY kind of multiplayer game (FPS, RTS, RPG, anything). Do I buy expensive "gamer" products to compensate for this? Nope, but I make sure I have at least half-decent hardware and even more importantly, that my computer is configured correctly.
Currently, I am using a logitech MX518 (got it for $35 on Amazon) and a hard rectangle of plastic for my mouse pad. I have a cheap ($14) Logitech K120 keyboard. I'd love to get a mechanical keyboard, fancy mouse pad, etc etc, but with my current setup I don't feel inhibited, so am very happy with what I have.
The tips provided by the original poster are definitely helpful to ensure that your current setup isn't causing you any problems. Overclocking the USB is probably more than most people are interested in doing, but that doesn't make it, or the rest of the post something to simply dismiss.
If you feel like you can't micro or macro effectively; it seems like you know what you want to do, but can't do it well; or just have this vague feeling that you aren't performing in game as well as you think you can; then I strongly recommend you play with your Windows settings and in game settings before playing anymore games. Having mouse settings so that you can accurately and precisely do what you want is so very important.
The graphics settings are definitely a key part of this, because as they game slows down, your mouse updates on the screen less frequently, and as such will be harder to track.
Anyways, just my thoughts on this issue, I tend to carry on sometimes 
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While many of these things might actually help, they'll probably only do so if you have nothing else left to work at. If your micro, macro, decision making and strategy execution are on a korean level, then you might worry about your USB ports not being overclocked - and I'm pretty sure that even then, it won't matter.
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On November 03 2010 03:53 Shockk wrote:
While many of these things might actually help, they'll probably only do so if you have nothing else left to work at. If your micro, macro, decision making and strategy execution are on a korean level, then you might worry about your USB ports not being overclocked - and I'm pretty sure that even then, it won't matter.
Actually, I think every tip, except the USB overclock should be implemented by anyone who plays SCII. I don't care if you only play the singleplayer campaign... every single game is made better by have a well tuned human-to-computer interface (and for PC gaming that usually means a mouse and keyboard).
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Don't forget mouse bungee. I got one and can't believe I didn't earlier. So much more fluid and less resistance using it.
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I bind my mouse thumb button to "A" for attack moving, and my pinky button to "7" for my main army. Increasing your USB port speed really isnt going to make a diff in your gameplay if your micro, macro, and mechanics aren't rock solid.
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On November 03 2010 00:09 Jimmy Raynor wrote:Show nested quote +On November 02 2010 23:46 Morfildur wrote:
I have the feeling that some people try to blame problems in their gameplay on the hardware they are using.
All those changes might increase your APM by roughly... 1-2 actions per minute, mostly because you misclicked somewhere and moved your army to the enemy instead of focus-fired the unit you wanted to hit and then struggle to undo the damage.
It might be good for FPS games, but you know what... SC2 is no FPS, precision is far more important than speed.
If you really, really want to do this, well, do it, but it won't make you a better player (and i highly recommend _not_ fiddling with hardware and overclock anything...) I agree man. Some people saying things like playing with mouse acceleration means you can never be pro or stuff like this seem ridiculous. Maybe this can be applied to some extend for FPS games but not here.
It's about being more accurate, which is kind of a big deal.
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Added some more updates along with some adjustment of format. Will continue to edit throughout the day and tomorrow. Should be a solid start for anyone to read now.
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On November 03 2010 04:07 Loophole wrote:Show nested quote +On November 03 2010 00:09 Jimmy Raynor wrote:On November 02 2010 23:46 Morfildur wrote:
I have the feeling that some people try to blame problems in their gameplay on the hardware they are using.
All those changes might increase your APM by roughly... 1-2 actions per minute, mostly because you misclicked somewhere and moved your army to the enemy instead of focus-fired the unit you wanted to hit and then struggle to undo the damage.
It might be good for FPS games, but you know what... SC2 is no FPS, precision is far more important than speed.
If you really, really want to do this, well, do it, but it won't make you a better player (and i highly recommend _not_ fiddling with hardware and overclock anything...) I agree man. Some people saying things like playing with mouse acceleration means you can never be pro or stuff like this seem ridiculous. Maybe this can be applied to some extend for FPS games but not here. It's about being more accurate, which is kind of a big deal.
We're not in some FPS, we're in a RTS which is also a big deal. Sometimes you want to get fast, sometimes you want to get precise, which is why acceleration is here for. I used both. And to be honest they're both good. I've played a lot of sc1 lans, and trust me when i saw one of the fastest french player with a very good accuracy turned out to have acceleration on. Either way both is fine really. Don't be over dramatic when saying that acceleration isn't for pro T_T
I'd suggest you to toy with acceleration for like 100 games before you get your mind. I've no acceleration but if i ever see another guy with it i won't comment about his gameplay at all because of this.
Other than that agree with everything except overcloking the usb. Like most of us mentionned, it's exagerated.
Clean ur mouse/mousepad regularly but 2 times a week ? I'd guess it depends of ppl. For me once a month or 2 is good. But that may be because i'm always washing my hands before playing, even betwen long sessions of games because i really hate to have dirty hands.
Cheer 
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On November 03 2010 03:57 MangoTango wrote:
Don't forget mouse bungee. I got one and can't believe I didn't earlier. So much more fluid and less resistance using it.
Logitech G7 wireless > mouse bungies :D
That said, other then the usb OCing, the tips are solid for any gamer and should honestly be habit. I can't begin to guess how many gamers I have seen over the years with extremely dirty gaming areas and they wonder why their performance is bad. Granted keeping everything clean is not going to turn you into some kind of uber gamer, but having a dirty area, dirty mouse and a bad mousing surface will indeed negatively impact your performance at all levels.
Keeping it clean!
This little device is invaluable for a few reasons.
1) It pays for itself in canned air very quickly.
2) Has a constant air output that is stonger then canned air and doesn't wimp out after a few seconds.
3) Can be used for your case, keyboard, mouse or pretty much anything.
Downsides?
You can't huff it and claim you dust your pc really often to get your parents to buy more. 
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Sadly, I've never had the pleasure of using a wireless mouse that didn't seem to have a small input lag to it. Now, I've never had the chance to use a G7 wireless, so maybe that'll do it
I don't have a mouse bungy or anything, but I find with a big, open table, the mouse cord doesn't run into anything and slides smoothly over the surface, so I don't have any resistance from that.
Concerning mouse acceleration here's an interesting little test for you. Try rapidly making perfect circles with a diameter of about 3/4 the height of your screen. By perfect I mean, they are always in the same location, aren't oval-ish (width > height or height < width), and aren't misformed at all. Personally, I've never EVER been able to do this with mouse acceleration (enhanced pointer precision) turned on. The circle tends to drift across the screen or become oval shaped for me. No matter how hard I try, I can correct for this. As soon as I turn off mouse acceleration, perfect circles every time.
The point? Well, it's not JUST about moving the mouse to a single point on the screen very quickly, but sometimes you need to make your units move in arcs, or other fancy shapes, and do this accurately.
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Nice job putting in the time to write it all down and summarize. Looking forward to whatever info you might input at a later time. Kudos
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On November 02 2010 23:29 Sanasante wrote:
3. Reducing your resolution in Starcraft 2 to achieve more hertz. 120 hz > 75 hz > 60 hz. I reduced my resolution down to get 75hz from my monitor, (Was tired of getting headaches) this made my mini-map larger and more viewable as well as my mouse becoming 3x-4x more responsive. My frames were still above 60 in both settings.
This is plain wrong "advice". Your minimap ALWAYS have the same size no matter which aspect your monitor is (16 : 9 // 4 : 3 // etc.) and no matter which resolution you run, NOTHING will make it bigger. Period! Test it out for yourself, put a yellow sticker over the minimap and change resolution all you want. It will still be exactly covered by the yellow sticker.
Basically the height of SC2 (the main game area and the interface) is constant, the resolution decides how many pixels are used to display that height, this is different from most other 3D games.
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EPT
