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Hey guys a couple of things i wanna tackle today..
First, I just got a new PC come in with a HD 21.5 inch LCD Monitor, it comes with the option of connecting it to my Geforce 460 GTX by either a dvi cable or HDMI. So firstly is there any benefit or disadvantage of choosing either connection?
I chose HDMI for now assuming it might be better if there is a difference at all. I've heard though that it really doesn't matter. So some clarification on that would be great.
Secondly, I really need a new Keyboard / Mouse bad for my gaming needs specifically Starcraft 2 and COD Black OPS. Currently I'm using a logitech G5 mouse and just a generic keyboard. For Mice I'm looking at either the SteelSeries Kinzu Optical or the Razr Imperator Mouse. For Keyboard I really have no clue, I know I want a mechanical one, i hate the new keyboard that have a soft touch to the keys i like the ones where you can actually feel each key and the pressing motion which I assume is what a mechanical keyboard is all about.
So if you guys have any suggestions on a mouse and keyboard combo as well as know anything about the HDMI and DVI differences please let me know.
Thanks 
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Any modern DVI and HDMI signals are identical for computer usage. HDMI is able to carry digital audio, so if you were to use a televion as a monitor, you could use the television's built-in speakers for your computer by going with an HDMI signal. DVI doesn't carry audio signals at all. In terms of image quality, the DVI and HDMI connections will be completely identical. Just use whichever you'd like. 
If you want more information, just check up on Wikipedia.
As for the Mouse/Keyboard combo, just use what feels good. I actually have a Razer Imperator, and it is a pretty good mouse. However, optical mice and lower DPI mice are just as good as high-end laser mice for SC2. The Imperator allows you to control DPI in steps of 100, and I've yet to go over 3200 dpi, which is in itself almost unplayable for SC2. I don't think I could ever use the full 5000+. I tend to switch between 1800 and 2400 dpi depending on how much I need to scroll and how accurately I need to click during a game of SC2.
Adjusting the side buttons can be helpful if you feel they are intrusive to your grip, but it's ultimately an unnecessary gimmick.
The imperator is very similar to a logitech MX 510/518 which are extremely popular mice, and can be used with a finger or palm grip. Other mice you may want to look at are the Deathadder and the MX518. The Kinzu (and its big brother Xai), the Deathadder and the MX518 are all well liked by gamers and are all great mice. The imperator is a great alternative to the Deathadder if you want or need laser-technology, or if the Deathadder is too large for your tastes.
As for a keyboard, the Steelseries g6v2 is a highly available and affordable mechanical keyboard with MX cherry black switches. The cherry blacks are recommended for FPS-games because they have linear response times and because they require relatively high pressure to press down, but I've found them to be pretty good for starcraft. Most SC2 professionals use mechanical keyboards with cherry brown switches, which are also recommended for typing. I don't know much about mechanical boards outside of the g6v2, but I'm sure there are good alternatives.
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mouse: logitech mx518 for a mouse is really nice! you can even switch dpi if you're into sniping. I like it alot. I had a Xai and a some Razr mice but they just didn't feel so good in my hand.
keyboard: I think Filco Majestouch brown switches would be the way to go if you are willing to spend that money!
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go to geekhack.org for learning about keyboards and what might suit you
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Thanks for all the info guys,
I did some more research and I think I'm gonna go with the Imperator and the 6GV2!
Thx again
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Hey guys so I'm here at home with my new keyboard and mouse, I'm a little overwhelmed to say the least in terms of what i should be doing for the settings on the new mouse. Should I play with the polling rate and increase the DPI on the imperator?? I put the dpi rate at 2400, and I left the polling rate at 500 hz i wasn't sure what that does anyway..
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On November 26 2010 09:55 Mabius wrote:
Hey guys so I'm here at home with my new keyboard and mouse, I'm a little overwhelmed to say the least in terms of what i should be doing for the settings on the new mouse. Should I play with the polling rate and increase the DPI on the imperator?? I put the dpi rate at 2400, and I left the polling rate at 500 hz i wasn't sure what that does anyway..
Polling rate is just how often your computer or mouse updates the position of the mouse cursor. Just set it as fast as possible, unless you're having problems, in which case, set it slower, until the problems stop. It probably doesn't make a perceptible difference anyways, unless you're superhuman, or a hummingbird or something.
For dpi, it's really a substitute for high mouse sensitivity in software. You want to turn your software sensitivity down and replace it with your mouse dpi (because that way, you don't skip pixels) so that your apps are set back to whatever sensitivity is the most comfortable, whether it's really low (if you're a pro counterstrike player) or much higher (playing Starcraft on a monitor with a humungous resolution,say). Don't just set your dpi as high as possible just because the shiny advertising blurb on the box had that dpi figure in bright block capitals. 90% of the stuff written as advertising blurb for gaming hardware is absolute tosh.
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On November 26 2010 09:55 Mabius wrote:
Hey guys so I'm here at home with my new keyboard and mouse, I'm a little overwhelmed to say the least in terms of what i should be doing for the settings on the new mouse. Should I play with the polling rate and increase the DPI on the imperator?? I put the dpi rate at 2400, and I left the polling rate at 500 hz i wasn't sure what that does anyway..
Configure stuff like this:
Windows options: notch 6 of 11 for mouse pointer speed; uncheck "enhanced pointer precision"
SC2 options: 51 % mouse pointer speed
Razer options: polling rate 500 Hz; DPI something you feel comfortable with
Explanations:
About the polling rate: the standard for USB mice is 125 Hz. With 125 Hz the mouse sends an update for its new position every 8 ms, at 500 Hz every 2 ms and at 1000 Hz every 1 ms. Some people are reporting that 1000 Hz slows down their computer.
Set the polling rate to 500 Hz, because that already shaves off nearly all of the 8 ms lag of the standard 125 Hz.
About the mouse speed and DPI:
In the Windows control panel mouse settings (I don't know about the Razer software), set the slider for mouse speed at exactly the middle. That's notch number 6 of the 11 notches of the slider. Uncheck "enhanced pointer precision" (that's mouse acceleration). With these settings Windows does a 1:1 translation of the movement updates from the mouse to pixels on your screen.
In SC2, choose a mouse speed between 51 % and 54 %. There's a thread somewhere that explains why 50 % is not the best setting and not the same as the middle notch from the Windows control panel settings.
Change the DPI setting of the mouse to make the mouse pointer speed feel comfortable to you. Do not touch the Windows or SC2 options if you feel your mouse pointer is too slow or too fast.
The DPI setting makes the mouse hardware do the calculations of what the sensor detects to screen pixels. Windows instead does fishy stuff like jump over pixels, if you want a higher pointer speed.
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@Ropid Would you happen to know what thread talks about that difference between 50 and 51%? I haven't heard that and I'm really interested in it. If you don't remember, do you recall what the thread was about (dedicated to that topic or a generic mouse thread) so that I can search for it? Thanks for the great info! I really have to read up on all of those mouse settings.
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http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=165625
and yes, use 51% in sc2, 6/11 in windows. oh, and btw increasing dpi and using a sensitivity of less than 1:1 (6/11 in windows) will lead to interpolation and inconsistent behaviour unless u go for an integer fraction. that is, windows sensitivity on 1,2,3,4 or 6 wont lead to inconsistent behaviour, but 5 will. anything above 6 is bad in all cases as it means skipping pixels, but there its also adivsable to use integer factors instead of noninteger ones, as noninteger ones would once again lead to interpolation.
here is a list about how many pixels the system makes out of a mouse movement corresponding to 1 pixel, depending on the windows sensitivity settings (btw the sens settings in sc2 are just a port to these settings, sc2 doesnt have its own system of adjusting the sens. so dont ever mess with it, always leave it at 51%!):
1. 0.03125
2. 0.0625
3. 0.25
4. 0.5
5. 0.75
6. 1.
7. 1.5
8. 2.
9. 2.5
10. 3.
11. 3.5
this list says that if the mouse registers a movement of 1 pixel and u are using 5/11, the system will translate this into a movement of 0.75 pixels on the screen. the problem with this obviously is that only integer pixel movements are possible, so the system has to round up or down. this means that if u move the mouse by the distance that corresponds to 1 pixel (this depends on the dpi setting obviously...) for 4 times in a row on 5/11, it will move the cursor by 1 onscreen pixel 3 times and not move it the 4th time. inconsistent behaviour, bullshit, do not want.
integer modifiers are better.. for example lets assume that u set your mouse to 4000 dpi and move the mouse by 1 inch. this means the mouse registers a movement of 4000 pixels (roughly speaking). now look at the table above: if u set the sensitivity to 4/11, the cursor will be moved only 2000 dpi. no interpolation. if the original signal would be 4001 dpi, then with this setting u would either get 2000 or 2001 pixels cursor movement onscreen. so with integer fractions, u only are off by 1/3/7 pixels at most, and this only on about 50% of all the movements. (1/3/7 pixels when throwing away 50/75/93.25% of the mouse input, ie windows settings 4/3/2 respectively)
with noninteger fractions, u will have interpolation all the times, even with even numbers of mouse input. to sum it up: increasing dpi and getting to the desired effective sensitivity by reducing the windows sensitivity slider below 6/11 will not only not increase precision by any bit, it will even add some loss of precision as the same mouse movement is not always translated into the same onscreen cursor movement.
when going above 6/11, or 1:1, the same issues of interpolation remain, with once again integer factors being preferable to noninteger ones. but the bigger issue is that going above this value will introduce pixel skipping. for example with a windows setting of 8/11, or a 2:1 ration between output and input, each signal the mouse sends to windows will be multiplied by 2. this means that any odd pixel number of ur screen can not be reached anymore. as a screen is twodimensional, this means that only every 4th pixel on ur screen can be reached!!! it is, by the hardware, impossible to reach 3 out of 4 pixels on ur screen when using this setting. this of course is terrible as it decreases the margin of error of your clicks.
in sc2 the objects are bigger than some few pixels, and there is no such thing as headshots, so why should we bother about not being able to reach every pixel? well, imagine u are microing ur units and are clicking very quickly. u wont have the time for super precision with every single click u do, so u wont always click in the middle of the marine or zergling. when u click on the last pixel corresponding to the marine/ling on the "good" settings, everything will work as intended by u. when using over 6/11, the pixel skipping may mean that u dont select the unit although ur click was technically correct and on the unit. do... not... want....
so to once again sum up this explanations: if its possible, always use 6/11 windows sensitivity, 51% sensitivity in sc2 and adjust the effective sensitivity solely by the dpi of your mouse.
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As far as keyboards go, I would suggest a Filco with Cherry Blues/Browns. However deciding whether to get black key switches, like in the Steelseries 7g keyboard, or whether to get brown/blue key switches is really up to you and what you prefer. I would suggest to try them out to see which you like more.
![[image loading]](http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006/1109/filco.jpg)
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Thank you for that, Black Gun! I love how TL feeds my love of getting all of the little things perfect. I'm a serial forum dweller, in other games usually just for the knowledge alone (and thank God for TL: so much better quality than any official Blizzard forum) and here for the community, also.
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EPT
