I refuse to by a new mouse
For years I have used this mouse, 3,000 hours of Arma 3, 700 of DayZ and many many more from other games. When the cable eventually breaks, I will fit a new USB, when the switches turn to mush I will solder in new switches.
I'm far from a fan boy, especially when it comes to Corsair but the Scimitar, best mouse I have had.
Sadly, every mouse I buy breaks on the inside and for some reason, it's never something easily fixable.
I miss my old Logitec T-CH11 Trackball. It lasted me 14 years without Incident. I feel lucky if the new ones last a single year.
Old is gold :') most manufacturing now is done so cheaply, its a feature of capitalism, it keeps us spending.
A somewhat on-topic question: Is there an easily fixable mouse that wouldn't cost me a kidney?
Depends on what you mean by easily.
I would look for a mouse where the screws aren't covered by the stick on feet. Less can be more, less buttons, less things to break = more stable. Its also good to look at the faulty market: buy a working mouse, and when it eventually breaks source replacement parts from faulty mice from eBay, if the market is stupidly priced or non existent you many need to do some research for which switches are used, this can be difficult to ID.
So stick with mainstream brands like Logitech, Corsair, Razor (not my first choice but there will be no end of faulty mice 😅) but if your up for IDing PCB components then any mouse can be fixable.
Thanks for the reply! I was thinking more along the lines of "open hardware" — either a mouse manufactured by a larger company so that it can be easily repaired, with the manufacturer happy to sell you spare parts (something like Framework laptops), or a mouse designed by an internet enthusiast that you can assemble yourself from off-the-shelf components and 3D-printed parts.
I once saw a build-it-yourself kit for an ultra-light mouse somewhere. I naively assume that such a mouse would be easy to repair. Alas, that kit would cost me my kidney.
I'm aware of Ploopy.
I have a Logitech G305 which is actually two frankensteined G305s, which was pretty easy to do.
That is my (combined) M$ trackball. There are 2 boards in my trackball, 1 for buttons and 1 for the ball, First one the ball board stopped working, the second the button board stopped working, I opened em up, unplugged the top board from the bottom board, put the 2 working parts together and it is still going strong 26 yrs later, even the wheel and buttons only click once
Reddragon, and just pull parts from goodwill mice, they send you extra Teflon pads with the mouse so you can open it and keep the pads nice. Switches are just switches, they are standard sizes, and the cords usually use standard plugs, worst case you swap some pins around to match. Insanely easy to take apart, and cheap enough to not worry about breaking.
They are cheap as hell, but they have good tracking sensors and are really comfortable to use.
If you can solder I'd say most mice are easily fixable. The most common defect for mice are the switches, which are usually quite simple to desolder, as there aren't any components near them.
E.g. I don't have much experience soldering and it took me under an hour replacing both switches on the G Pro Wireless as well as the battery. I've bought this mouse used about 5 years ago and I wouldn't be surprised if it lasted another 5 years.
Edit: The annoying part is the screws being below the feet, so you have to replace them after opening the mouse. But it's all screwed in.
In addition to that, for popular, "name brand" mice, there are often also tons of replacement parts available from China. You can basically re-build the complete mouse from parts.
Otherwise, as you've said, switches, wheel, the battery and maybe the cable, should always be replaceable (as long as you can solder).
Find a mouse you like the shape of and look at comparable mice that have replaceable switches. Then do a quick check on aliexpress at the prices of those switches/wheels. Things have gotten better with mice.
I just about always prefer repair to replacement. Even if I'm not in love with the thing, less expense and pollution is worth a little effort.
There's not many objects that you use with the same regularity and intimacy as a mouse other than footwear and furniture. If they're a bit off you get used to them to the point their flaws become part of their charm. I got my Microsoft Sculpt Mouse when they were brand new. It's still going strong and I'll be heartbroken when it eventually dies but, at the risk of jinxing it, it's showing no signs.
All my mouse end up like this after a year or two. Thing is they never used to back in the day but all new mice have a coating that wears off so easily now.
could be my tinfoil hat receiving thoughts via radio waves: maybe it's by design? the coating will get grimy eventually, so the user is more likely to buy a new device.
not tinfoil at all, that's a material choice that they made knowing what the result would be
this is intentional
It’s not really a tinfoil hat, it’s just the material.
Older mice were hard plastic, modern mice use soft touch plastic which is a coating. It wears off.
It’s kind of like cheap pleather after a couple years
I've had mine for 5 maybe 6 years with fairly regular use.
I mentionee this elsewhere hours ago, but I used to have a mouse that served me so long, by the time it finally fully died, there was a BB sized hole worn through the plastic of the left button from my finger.
👏🏻
My Logitech MX500 (or might be MX510?) should be over 20 years old now. Still going strong. And it lasted through over 400 days of WoW played-time as well as thousands of hours of StarCraft and StarCraft 2.
wow, almost as old as my (combined) Microsoft trackball, that is about 26 yrs old. Where yours has a bald spot from your finget, my trackball has lost ALL texture, so smooth a slightly sweaty hand slides easily. I have no idea how many hours it has been (ab)used for, I was unemployed when I got it and spent most of the day on IRC and playing games, good times. Haven't found a decent replacement yet, I think my time is running out
That's at least 500 clicks.
I've had a logitec g502 for years, the rubber (?) grips on the sides have dents shaped like my fingers...
Same. I still use the original Proteus Core labeled version. They have since re-released the mouse 3 times I think but my original is still going strong
Been using this mouse for years. The scroll wheel is already spazzing out whenever I use it. Still, haven't had any complaints about it other than that (except for needing iCue).
I don't need all the side buttons anymore though, so I may go for something simpler for my next mouse. Still, it was the best mouse I could find with that many inputs available to it.
for me its the dpi up button that some times sticks, scroll is fine though. ICue sucks, luckily Linux has ckb-next
also, what was it you originally needed the extra inputs for?
ICue is the worst
I totally regret buying that elite LCD that slots over the cooler, and all those Corsair fans + the case. I mean the hardware is fine, everything has been trucking a long for a really long time, the AIO, the fans, I've never had a problem with any of it from a hardware perspective. But it also means I'm locked into having that friggin ICue running in the background. The amount of other programs that app interferes with and basically fucks up, is unbelievable. I'm not buying anymore Corsair stuff, and iCue is 110% to blame for that.
Originally needed them for modded Minecraft. I ran out of keys on my keyboard for all the keybindings that mods wanted.
Also tried using them in ffxiv, at least for the short period of time that I played it (fun game but I don't have the time sadly).
Me with my tiling compositor, modal editor and Tridactyl in my browser: I refuse to use a mouse.
Love tilling compositors, Swayfx then moved to Niri for a scrolling compositor.
Yes. Niri is my choice, too. Very convenient, especially when using a laptop with limited screen space as I do.
Meanwhile my ergo mouse scroll wheel is already squeaking again and soon it'll probably start acting funky and I'll have to get a new one lol, wish they were more durable
I recently switched to a G502 hero, myself, after I had a Steelseries Rival 500 for the longest time. I miss the unique side-button layout on the Rival, but c'est la vie. Maybe I'll find a similar, more ergonomic MMO mouse one day.
They usually sell grippy pads for the top part and replacement skids
No idea how they glide theres no reviews https://www.amazon.com/Thickness-Sticker-Nightsword-Scimitar-Accessories/dp/B0DBMZ6VFL
The mouse of Theseus. You could look into 3d printing replacement part. Those soft touch coating get sticky after they start to deteriorate.
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/p/gaming-mouse/ch-9304011-na/scimitar-pro-rgb-optical-moba-mmo-gaming-mouse-a-yellow-ch-9304011-na
OP didn't expand on it, and his photos didn't show it, but this mouse apparently has a bunch of thumb buttons, which is a legitimately-rare feature (though it's not the only mouse out there to have a bunch).
EDIT: Amazon has 786 "gaming mice" with 10 or more --- a bit arbitrarily-chosen on my part --- buttons, so I guess that there's a reasonable crop out there these days.
Razer is still making their Naga mouse with 12 side buttons. I believe they have a model that you can hot swap the side buttons to be the amount you want.
Of course Razer isn’t the most reliable brand…
As cool as the hot swap thing is, it's incredible they don't sell replacement parts, mine has some faulty buttons that post cleaning somewhat work, but I use them almost as much as the click buttons, and having such an easy replaceable part that's not sold infuriates me to no end.
Logitech made the best (the g600) but it was discontinued and they show no signs of reviving it 😭
Second best. The best is actually the reddragon one that's $20 on Amazon.
I have used every mmo mouse on the market (currently on a scimitar elite, it's the one op has but silver not yellow) and they are all decent mice, but each has a fatal flaw except the reddragon.
G600 click switches are awful and double click after weeks of use, I had to replace them twice, the final time with the switches out of the red dragon. That was fine for close to 10 years, but the side key caps fall off, they are barely glued on.
The scimitar has an awful encoder on the scroll wheel, I had to open the mouse to pack it with Vaseline to get it working properly, and disassembling the scimitar is a nightmare.
The reddragon has bad software, but it's also supported by open source options for remapping and RGB, so it's one flaw was by far the easiest to fix.
The g600 was the most comfortable to palm, but the side keys are in an awkward spot to palm the mouse, the scimitar is nice for the adjustable keypad, but it moves with time and tightening it too much will break the mouse. The red dragon has an odd texture on the far side, very rough, but otherwise the best for a claw grip.
Had a Naga at first but refused to buy Razer after it broke (got quite a few years out of it). I'm on my second G600 and bought a third off eBay which is sitting on my shelf new and sealed. Of I ever get to the point that the third one dies, then I'll maybe scavenge the first two for parts and repair one XD
I have used the G604 for 6 years and the 6 side buttons are perfect for me - not too few, not too many, just right. Plus Bluetooth & Lightspeed to switch between devices.
I've printed it a replacement for its rubber cover, but now I need to look at cleaning/replacing the switches as they are starting to double click.
I bought the mouse for ~$68 on sale, the resale market for the mouse is nuts.
Makes it great for games like Arma 3 😍 and 3D cad.