Gigabyte GM-M8000 Mouse - A GHOST Story
by Gary Key on June 15, 2009 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
We had a very interesting package show up at the front door a couple of weeks ago. No, it was not our new supply order from ShamWoW or even that P55/Lynnfield box we recently reviewed. It was a mouse designed and built by a motherboard company. Specifically, it was from Gigabyte and included a keyboard we will discuss later. Of course, there were a couple of motherboards and video cards in the box but our attention was naturally drawn to the new shiny trinket in the tricked out package.
Normally a mouse would not elicit such excitement but since I change mice about as often the US elects a Democratic president one could easily forgive me for being a bit too eager to give this product a through thrashing. Honestly, I had no idea that Gigabyte even offered mice but after checking out their PC peripheral page, I was impressed with the range of products offered. In fact, Gigabyte offers a total of nine mice ranging from an entry level wireless optical mouse to several gaming mice including our GM-M8000 sample.
The GM-M8000 is part of Gigabyte’s new GHOST gaming series of products. This particular mouse features the AVAGO 6090 Laser sensor featuring adjustable sensitivity from 400 dpi to 4000 dpi, Gigabyte’s GHOST Engine featuring 8KB of onboard memory, GHOST software suite, 16-bit wide data path, five independently programmable buttons, four level on-the-fly DPI adjustment, USB report rate tuning, and an adjustable weight system with 38 grams of metal weights.
It all sounds impressive; the key is if this mouse actually works as advertised. So, let’s find out if this GHOST is the real thing or just another Casper wannabe.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
44 Comments
View All Comments
dragunover - Monday, June 22, 2009 - link
Size and design shape is a serious problem with me. I think I will go with the 20 dollar cheaper OCZ Behemoth rather than this, though I might recommend it to people with a bit smaller hands (not like a 6 10 cro magnon?) than me.yyrkoon - Thursday, June 18, 2009 - link
Not sure I agree that this would be a gaming mouse just because of a few software features, and adjustable DPI. The reason being, is that I bought a Logitech G7 gaming mouse ~4 years ago, or when they first came out, and paid a hefty price of ~$80 USD for it thinking the adjustable DPI (400, 800, 1600 DPI I think ) would help me with fine movement in certain games when needed. This is not the case, and actually, all it really did when turning up the DPI was make the mouse more twitchy. Maybe the screen resolution I play at is not large enough, but this has been my experience.For the above reason I was disappointed, albeit briefly until I got used to the mouse, and just left the mouse on the medium DPI setting. A few things to note however . . . The G7 is wireless (2.4Ghz wireless), has very fine control once you become accustomed to it. Enough that you can *easily* use it for fine pixel pushing in Photoshop (and yes I also own a pen / tablet too). Last but definitely not least the darned thing is several years old, and is still making the owner ( me ) very happy.
Anyhow my point here is that in order for this mouse to make *me* happy, it would have to meet, or exceed the above "standards". e.g wireless, fine mouse control, and longevity. I suspect that some people do not like wireless mice, but if Gigabyte made this wireless I figure it would sell well/better. Either way, for me to spend my money on such a thing, it must be wireless.
sotoa - Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - link
Does the software sense what program you're in? From the pics it seems so.So if I launch the game, and I have button 4 set as CTR-z and button 5 to CTR-x, will that work? Even if the game doesn't understand button 4&5?
I think the mx518 has that feature, but I hate cordless mice.
aeternitas - Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - link
Saying you hate cordless mice is like saying you hate automobiles based on a few cheap car brands.sotoa - Thursday, June 18, 2009 - link
Nope, I don't go for cheap, I go for quality.1)I don't like how cordless run out of power,
2)the internal battery dieing after about 1-2 years, therefore force to buy a new one (or in others... replace the battery),
3)I prefer the response of a corded one.
Cordless, if not needed, are not the green way to go either.
yyrkoon - Thursday, June 18, 2009 - link
If you can not take one battery out of the mouse, put it in the charger/base station, and put the other back into the mouse( yes, two batteries ), then you're very hard to please. This is something that logitech did with the G7 1600 DPI mouse ( which I own ), and is something that you only need worry about 1-2 times a day( swapping batteries that is ). Depends on how often you use the mouse, and for how long. My G7 is also ~4 years old, and while the batteries do not hold a charge as long, they still work great. As for the "response", there is no input lag what-so-ever.Cordless mice are not any less green if you choose the right one. But you have to ask yourself how green you're really being if all you do is sit in front of a monitor, playing games all day.
sotoa - Thursday, June 18, 2009 - link
I can't game as much as I'd like. I work over 14 hrs a day, 70hrs/wk.I only took the time to post and read the article because I was also thinking about using this for work. So if it senses the program I'm in, I can click a button to execute a certain macro/or key, but only in that application. To avoid repetitive tasks in my work application.
My belief is that even though some things are geared for gaming, they usually excel in other areas besides gaming. If a gaming mouse is great, then it should be great for work usually.
yyrkoon - Thursday, June 18, 2009 - link
"My belief is that even though some things are geared for gaming, they usually excel in other areas besides gaming. If a gaming mouse is great, then it should be great for work usually."Thats exactly what I meant In my post under yours here. I am a hobbyist image retoucher, and require a pen and tablet to do a lot of the stuff I like to do. However, with the mouse that I have (previously mentioned) I can do some of the stuff I'd normally do with the tablet, with the mouse instead. It is a little slower, and more prone to over/under correcting, but in a pinch it works fine.
I purchased the mouse thinking it would make my gaming more fun, and enjoying, which it did, but not in the way I anticipated. Then as an added bonus as you and I both already have said, it has made my over all computing experience more pleasurable as well. Not to mention the fact that I did not have to buy another mouse over the course of 3.5-4 years . . . which is something that can be a pain if you're really picky with your input devices like I am.
Dantte - Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - link
"Gigabyte also allows dpi on-the-fly adjustments of 800, 1600, 3200, and 4000 compared to 400, 800, and 2000 on the G5."It should be noted that these are default settings. In the G5 software (Setpoint), you can add 2 more on-the-fly adjustments and tweak the dpi to any setting you desire, giving you a total of 5 adjustments with the G5 compared to the M8000's 4 adjustments. I dont think it was mentioned, but you can also adjust the USB report-rate for the G5 in Setpoint.
Gary Key - Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - link
I clarified that statement to include the default on-the-fly settings and added in the G5's additional DPI tweaks. One paragraph down I did mention the report rates being adjustable on both mice. :)