Installation:
The
OCZ Technology Equalizer Laser Gaming Mouse was connected to several test systems - all of which had Microsoft Windows XP Professional installed. Upon inserting the USB connector into an open port the mouse was immediately operational. However, to take advantage of the special features such as the "triple threat" buttons and the "forward" and "back" browser buttons you will need to install the included Equalware software.
Software:
Installing the OCZ Technology Equalware Software for this mouse was straightforward. After a simple installation process you will be able to select whatever functions you desire for each programmable mouse button. As you can see in the below right image, all of your typical mouse options are available too, including double-click speed, cursor trails, etc.
Digging deeper into the software you see the mouse can also replicate keyboard commands. For example, you could set the middle mouse button of the OCZ Technology Equalizer to activate the "F11" key, or any keystroke for that matter. The below right screen shot shows the most interesting portion of the software called "Equalware - Jump." This gives you the ability to change the mouse sensitivity using your keyboard, too. Although this seems redundant, I'm sure some people will appreciate having user defined keyboard shortcuts that can adjust the mouse sensitivity.
Testing/Usage:
To adequately test the OCZ Technology Equalizer Laser Gaming Mouse, it was installed on the primary test system for several weeks. This helped ensure that the computer was used in a variety of applications and games. This mouse has a different feel from my traditional Logitech mouse, and after three weeks I am honestly still getting used to it. I cannot say the OCZ Technology mouse is more comfortable, but what you lose in comfort you may gain with the extra features. I personally found 800DPI to be the most comfortable (green colored LED) for navigating Microsoft Windows. Yellow (1,200DPI) was better for gaming, but anything above that seemed ridiculously sensitive.
If you want to take full advantage of the 2500DPI capability of this device, I imagine you'd need to dumb-down all of your mouse sensitivity settings in Windows and in your games. That way you could control the sensitivity of everything you do with your computer with a click of the mouse button.
