Today we will be looking at two mice from I-Rocks, the IR-7300 standard size mouse and the IR-7100 notebook sized mouse. These mice have been supplied to us by the fine people at PCUSA Corp, who we were first introduced to with the Poseidon Water Cooler. This time they bring us two mice from I-Rocks, a Taiwanese company who has been in the computer peripherals business for over 13 years.
As you can see in the picture below, both mice come packed in your standard blister pack.
Once you get either blister pack opened you find the mouse, a USB to PS/2 adaptor, a floppy driver disk, and what is called the “Users Manual”. This manual is actually a small, folded piece of paper with very basic instruction on how to install the drivers. It is not really what I would call a manual, but how many of us actually bother reading the manual with something like a mouse, anyway?
The two images below provide a close up of the top and bottom of the larger, 7300 series mouse...
 
The two images below provide a close up of the top and bottom of the smaller, 7100 series mouse...
 
These mice look nice... They have a smooth rounded shape and come in four different colors. The chrome looking accent pieces add a nice touch to the appearance of these mice, as well.
Good looks are a welcome feature, but not enough of a reason to choose any mouse! Let’s get on to the features and specifications of these mice. Other than size, the two mice have the same basic features and specifications...
Features:
• Streamline design with hair-line surface treatment (hair-line finish will not be on 7300 series)
• Plug & Play simplicity
• 800 dpi resolution offers twice the accuracy of typical mouse movement
• Optical functionality accurate on almost any surface
• Ergonomic contour for comfortable use
Specifications:
• Interface:Combo(USB+PS/2)
• Dimension:125mm×65mm×35mm
• Compatible with window 98/2000/ME XP
Installation:
All right, now on to installing the mouse and my first problem. The system I am going to test this mouse on has no floppy drive. Windows will pick up the mouse and install native generic drivers for it, but I was not sure if the native Window’s drivers would take advantage of the 800 dpi capability of this mouse. To get around this I copied the contents of the driver floppy onto a CDRW and went on with the installation.
Installation was a breeze. Simply plug the mouse into any open USB port, or use the adaptor and plug into a PS/2 port. Then put the drive disk in and browse to setup.exe and double click to install the drivers. Reboot and you are all set. The drivers did add two tabs to the Windows mouse properties dialog box, one is a duplicate of the “Wheel” tab with a slightly fancier look, and the second is a tab to control the behavior of the buttons.
Performance:
These mice feel good and are very reactive to the slightest movement. In all the FPS games I tried them in, they performed very smoothly and were very predictable, with no surprises. I used them on a variety of surfaces, ranging from an old school mouse pad, a Ratzpad, the desktop, and even my leg, and it never missed a beat. All this is good but these attributes have come to be expected in a mouse these days.
Next, I fired up PhotoShop to see how well the mice performed. I was very surprised at how smooth and easy to control they were. When doing some delicate outlining with the lasso tool, the I-Rocks mice really started to shine. They were extremely accurate and precise. For inexpensive mice, these really offer excellent control and are very accurate. No doubt this is due to the 800 dpi feature.
Conclusion:
The I-Rocks IR-7300 and 7100 offer good performance for what they are, very reasonably priced optical mice. They look nice and perform well, but lack some of the features higher priced mice like sport, such as extra programmable buttons. They also lack that durable feel that many higher priced mice have. If your budget is of utmost concern, and you need performance but not a lot of buttons, the I-Rocks mice are just what the Doctor ordered.
A quick check online finds the I-Rocks mice at many online vendors for around $13-$14, with the following outlets being a few recommended sources:
• Newegg
• mWave
• Tiger Direct
Final Rating (4 out of 5 stars): 
Pros:
• Smooth, precise movement
• Attractive styling
• Inexpensive
Cons:
• Drivers only provided on floppy disk
• "Lightweight" construction
• No programmable buttons
Special thanks to PCUSA Corp for providing the I-Rocks to BigBruin.Com for review!
Please drop by the BigBruin.Com Forum and feel free to discuss this review.
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