Sidewinder x8 Mouse

R

Riftsaw

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 26, 2008
Messages
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So yeah, I've been watching this mouse for a while and checking out reviews(which all seem to heavily favor it) and decided to cave in for one.

Has anyone had any personal experience with the mouse?
 
I don't have the X8, but I love my Sidewinder mouse. They are big so I'd suggest finding a place that has them on display so you can hand test one.
 
Does anybody know any actual B&M store that has these? I want to at least put my grubby mitts on it before I plunk down the cash.....
 
Bohica69 said:
Does anybody know any actual B&M store that has these? I want to at least put my grubby mitts on it before I plunk down the cash.....
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Best Buy carries them. Though they don't seem to stock a lot at one time.
 
I have the sidewinder. Its horrible. Looks like they made the right adjustments to the x8 though. It's just a little bigger then I prefer.
 
Mine will be here Monday from buy.com. I hope it's as good as the reviews say. I am replacing a MS Habu mouse made by Razer and I absolutely HATE IT. Worst garbage ever. Hopefully I will not be disappointed by the X8. It's been a long time since a good gaming-grade wireless mouse has come along.
 
Let us know what you think of the X8. I've been looking for a wireless mouse that's good for gaming to replace my MX700. The X8 seems to just about fit the bill for me. The G7 looks decent but having only one side button is a real deal breaker for me. I'm also looking at the MX1100....from reviews it seems like a solid "standard" mouse that's also good for gaming, even though it's not marketed as a "true" gaming mouse.
 
I always recommend the G9. Easily the best mouse I've ever used--many of the features of the MX Revolution (but wired) with removable weights, a perfectly placed sensitivity control (and on-mouse indicator), and swappable covers.
 
Just finished hooking up the x8 and its pretty damn big. I like it. Fits right into my palm and even gives my ring finger a place to sit. Going to be comparing it to my previous mouse: The Logitech Mx518.

The Macro record button is a bit hard to get to but I guess thats understandable.

The wheel tilt seems kinda weighted to the left. Its much easier to get a left tilt off than a right tilt unless you alternate fingers(middle for left tilt, index for right tilt).

The 2 rocker buttons on the side are perfect, much easier to get ahold of the 2nd button than it was on my Mx518(My previous battle-worn buddy).

The interchangable feet seem kinda gimmicky but the grey ones glide almost as smooth as ice over my cloth pad(QCK).

Much easier to get to a certain DPI setting in than the Mx518. Instead of having to hit the increase/decrease sensitivity buttons I can just choose between one of three settings and see which one i'm using Was able to make use of around 5 settings(though you had to scroll through em) on the Mx518 though.

Its noticably heavier than my 518 when lifted. Fortunately it doesn't feel that much heavier during movement.

Those are my initial impressions of the mouse. Overall I'm impressed with it though I still need to put it through its paces in a few games AND see if the macro function would be useful at all.
 
I never take mouse reviews for granted, most reviewers are just a bunch of ignorant nubs who don't know anything about max tracking speed, correction, polling rate and mouse acceleration, they just get the paycheck from companies, play a couple of rounds of CS/UT/quake botmatch, write some b*llshit like " roccat kone gives me moar headshots than mx518 or that generic 3 button dell mouse" and that's it

GGL.com is one of the few exceptions because it has more experienced staff than average (like mahmood) , sujoy's mousescore 2007 is a great piece of work too http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1265679
 
Daaaaaamn!

Got mine from Buy.com for $75 + $5 2day shipping.

Haha GO Amazon! Thats what I get for being impatient I guess.
 
The only thing that turned me off of the X8 is that its wireless. I won't use wireless mice, no matter how good people claim they are these days.
 
Derangel said:
The only thing that turned me off of the X8 is that its wireless. I won't use wireless mice, no matter how good people claim they are these days.
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Want to elaborate as to why? The X8 has yet to cause me any wireless issues; its totally reliable with no lag time. Never before would I have used a wireless mouse for gaming, but the X8 has the honor of being the first.
 
rampantandroid said:
Want to elaborate as to why? The X8 has yet to cause me any wireless issues; its totally reliable with no lag time. Never before would I have used a wireless mouse for gaming, but the X8 has the honor of being the first.
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I've had some bad experiences with wireless mice over the years. Its put me off of them.
 
Riftsaw said:
Just finished hooking up the x8 and its pretty damn big. I like it. Fits right into my palm and even gives my ring finger a place to sit. Going to be comparing it to my previous mouse: The Logitech Mx518.

The Macro record button is a bit hard to get to but I guess thats understandable.

The wheel tilt seems kinda weighted to the left. Its much easier to get a left tilt off than a right tilt unless you alternate fingers(middle for left tilt, index for right tilt).

The 2 rocker buttons on the side are perfect, much easier to get ahold of the 2nd button than it was on my Mx518(My previous battle-worn buddy).

The interchangable feet seem kinda gimmicky but the grey ones glide almost as smooth as ice over my cloth pad(QCK).

Much easier to get to a certain DPI setting in than the Mx518. Instead of having to hit the increase/decrease sensitivity buttons I can just choose between one of three settings and see which one i'm using Was able to make use of around 5 settings(though you had to scroll through em) on the Mx518 though.

Its noticably heavier than my 518 when lifted. Fortunately it doesn't feel that much heavier during movement.

Those are my initial impressions of the mouse. Overall I'm impressed with it though I still need to put it through its paces in a few games AND see if the macro function would be useful at all.
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Please put up a nice good comparison between the two when you get around to it. It's down to either the Sidewinder X8 or the Razer Mamba for me, and I'm leaning toward the Sidewinder, so give me a reason to take the plunge.
 
Derangel said:
The only thing that turned me off of the X8 is that its wireless. I won't use wireless mice, no matter how good people claim they are these days.
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I believe you can also plug in this mouse (make it wired) to charge and play. Just keep it plugged in?

Play and Charge - Up to 30 hours of active gaming on a single charge, or use the play-and charge cable for non-stop action.
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I found my MS sidewider (origional)to be very comfortable, but it dosent track anywhere near as well as my Steelseries Ikari. I just need to get used to a smaller mouse. The ikari is pretty comfortable too though.
 
heatlesssun said:
This review was less than stellar: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/03/11/review-microsoft-sidewinder-x8-gaming-mouse/

I do hope he had a bad mouse and I'm a little leery about the scroll wheel. So Microsoft mice I have have great scroll wheels and others, newer than the mice with good scroll wheels, have horrible ones. Its very inconsistent in my experience.
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Holy shit he's right. Checked out the review and decided to do some precision mousing to see if I could notice the jumps and yes, they are there.

Its most noticable in windows at the 4000 dpi setting when you're moving very slowly. I'll check some setting out on the mouse to see if this can be remedied.

EDIT: Alrighty just did some ingame testing and yeah, skips like you wouldn't fucking believe during precision movement but here's the rub: It seems the mouse doesn't like my clothpad.

Took it off the pad and put it directly on my desk(which is as potmarked and battleworn as my Mx518) and it tracked fucking flawlessly. I even went as far as taking the mouse over pretty scarred portion of my desk and nothing, tracked like a champ. Put it back on my Steelseries QCK and the skipping came back.

Alrighty... I got 2 theories. Either the bluetrack tech is so goddamn sensitive that its reading off the thread weave in the mat(and subsequently skipping because of it) OR errr.. ummm... yeah thats the only theory I have actually...

<_<

>_>

So yeah I'm going to go ahead and order me a slick mat right now. Any suggestions?

Edit 2: Seriously, I'm freaking appalled by this. You should've seen the look on my face when I found out it was the pad that was making the mouse freak out.

Man... I'm going to test it on more surfaces before I order another pad, I gotta make sure I don't drop more lewt on a pad that this mouse won't accept. Its DAMN funny when think about it though. Terrible surface -> Flawless tracking no skips. Professional/Gaming-grade clothpad -> Skips like crazy.
 
Just checked the video and the reviewer was using a Razer Goliathus(atleast in the video) cloth pad.

Again, can anyone recommend me a good slickpad, I'm going to order one TONIGHT. I just can't bring myself to mouse directly on this rough desk.
 
Went ahead and dropped $20 on a Ratpadz XT and have fallen back to an old 3dfx 3M Precise Mousing Surface pad until it gets here.

Just to reiterate: The Sidewinder x8 seems to spazz out on cloth pads. If anyone else has an x8 and has a cloth pad handy could you test the tracking and post your results here?

Just want to confirm whether this is a fluke or not.
 
Its a notched roll mouse wheel. No smooth roll. Seems easier to roll forward than backward. The crosshatching on the center surface of the wheel doesn't really help much in actually moving it around. You're going to be putting a bit of pressure on your roll, ESPECIALLY when you're rolling back.

I feel that they could've made the crosshatching rougher or deeper so it would actually catch on to your finger and help you roll without having to put as much pressure on it as you do now.

The left and right tilt on it also feels a bit clunky. Theres a noticable bit of play before you actually get to the "click". With my index finger its easier for me to pull of a left tilt than a right tilt. It feels like theres more play when I'm tilting right than left.

The heavy notching in the wheel definately helps with precise weapon switching. Hard to over or undershoot your wep choice with it because each notch gives noticable feedback whether you spin the wheel forward or backward.

The middle button also takes a bit of force to push down, much more than than the left or right mouse buttons. It helps keep you from accidentally depressing it during a spin or tilt but I think they could've went just a bit lighter on the force you need to depress it. It'll take a bit of getting used to if you're coming from a Logitech mouse.

Basically I like the feedback I get from turning it and the fact that its hard to accidentally depress the middle button during a roll or tilt. I'm not too impressed with the wheel tilt though nor the grip they attempted the give the wheel. You'd have to be turning that thing with your fingernails to actually make use of the crosshatching on it and like I mentioned above its easier to tilt left than right(atleast on my mouse).

Overall I feel its an acceptable middle mouse button, though I admit I haven't tried any of the newer Logitech mice's wheels(just the Mx518, pretty generic wheel on that one).
 
Rift, thanks for the detailed description. Seems like its similar to the original Sidewinder I tried at BB. I've been debating on whether to replace my stuttering MX Revo. The Logi Hyper Scroll wheel is the one feature I'm teetering on.
 
wrathofgod said:
I believe you can also plug in this mouse (make it wired) to charge and play. Just keep it plugged in?
Click to expand...

I just bought a Sidewinder HKA. I was just explaining why I passed up the X8. Though a cheap wireless might be nice for when I watch Netflix stuff in bed. Then I can change episodes of whatever show I'm watching without getting up.
 
Just got mine and overall I don't think its as good as the G7. It's big, but not really bigger than the G7. The G7 does track better and the scroll wheel is better. Actually the only problem with the scroll wheel is that its too slippery. The G7's wheel is rubberized and doesn't slip.

The charging cable is really slick, all you have to do is hold the mouse over the magnetized connector and viola, it snaps into place. That's cool. However I now finally have two side buttons and the positioning of this is excellent.

Damn. I really was hoping that this mouse would make my forget the G7, like the Sidewinder keyboard made my forget about my G15 keyboard. It's not a bad mouse, and when it comes to wireless gaming mice, this and the G7 for now are really the only games in town, no pun intended. For $70 shipped I'll keep it. It's not bad it just isn't what I was hoping for.
 
I got X8 to review it, it's nice mouse... but not for my hands. G9 fits my palm much better and is, IMO a little bit more comfortable to use. Other then hand compatipility it's well designed and no feeling of a cheap mouse under your hand. THo macro recording key is badly placed.

LCD screen also helps to know what DPI you have set and how much battery you got.
As for the wheel - the tilt left/right is easier then X8, tho scrolling up/down is easier on G9 (especially if you press that button which lets you turn it much faster and easy.

Advice? As with all mice - try if it fit your hand.
 
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