Trackballs

I've noticed that during the past few months, my right wrist and arm become quite uncomfortable after a couple of hours at the computer. It's pretty annoying, and a bit worrisome...I don't want to develop carpal tunnel syndrome and have my arm become useless by the time I turn 30.

I understand that mice are pretty much a necessity for gaming, but I think that a trackball would be a lot nicer for desktop use. To be honest, though, I don't really know much about fancy input devices, and there aren't a lot of stores where I can try out different trackballs around here. I'd like to know if anyone uses a trackball instead of a mouse, and what kind of trackball is the most comfortable to use without costing lots of money.

Thanks in advance!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Been using a trackball mouse for about 5-6 years and I love it, I consider it the best with Space-sim games, or even shooters, because you just spin a ball around and not have to lift up a regular mouse and put back to where it was.

The stories I hear from people trying the trackball is that it is weird, it feels odd, and it's not working. All I say is play a shooter while using the trackball and within an hour or a bit longer as if it was a regular mouse.

Anyways the mouse I use is the Microsoft Trackball Explorer 1.0. I consider it the best trackball I ever used. Now there is another trackball by Microsoft called Trackball Optical. But for cheaper mice go for a Logitech Trackball, from the times I’ve used it they have been great.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

If your arm is getting tired after just an hour or two, it's probably the way that you have your mouse situated on your desk. Try looking up a guide to proper ergonomics for mousing somewhere online. My guess is that your mouse is either 1) situated too high for how you sit, 2) sitting too far away so you have to reach for it, or 3) you need to constantly tug on the wire because it's getting snagged on something or most of the cable is hanging behind your desk and you need to pull it up every time you move the mouse backward.

Do you feel the same problem when you use every other computer you've worked at?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Much like Cachecrash I've had a trackball for many years now, and I can never go back. It did take some getting used to at first, but again, not more than a few hours. And personally I think they're vastly more efficient when playing most games, particularly any first-person game, although a bit more awkward with most real-time strategy games.

The two kind of trackballs I've had experience with are the Logitech TrackMan Wheel and the Logitech TrackMan Marble. However, I'm not so fond of the Marble - they're almost flat and the marble gets dirty easily. I vastly prefer my Wheel because it's arched up a lot higher, which is far more comfortable on my hand, and the marble is designed to not get as gunked up so easily.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

If your arm is getting tired after just an hour or two, it's probably the way that you have your mouse situated on your desk. Try looking up a guide to proper ergonomics for mousing somewhere online. My guess is that your mouse is either 1) situated too high for how you sit, 2) sitting too far away so you have to reach for it, or 3) you need to constantly tug on the wire because it's getting snagged on something or most of the cable is hanging behind your desk and you need to pull it up every time you move the mouse backward.

Do you feel the same problem when you use every other computer you've worked at?

My computer at school has a pretty bad ergonomic setup...the mouse is too far away from me and set too high. However, I find that my wrist will eventually begin to ache no matter what computer I'm using, even if the desk and chair are set up properly. My desk at home is set up very close to what all of the ergonomics guides that I've read suggest, but my wrist will still ache after a few hours at the computer.

I did play around with a TrackMan Wheel at Best Buy (eww), but it actually seemed a bit too big...I seem to have pretty small hands (I can't even use a Dual Shock comfortably) and my thumb couldn't reach the ball very well without sliding away from the buttons and wheel. The Logitech Marble seems like a decent choice at this moment, but especially after seeing StarmanDX's post, I am a bit worried about buying one without trying it for a bit.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Perhaps it's the mouse itself? I've found certain styled mouses (the newer Microsoft wireless mice in particular) wear my wrist out really fast compared to other mice I've used. I don't like that one in particular because of the weight of the mouse as well as the angle it makes your wrist sit on.

I've found the most comfortable mouse I've ever used to be the traditional Microsoft Intellimouse Optical. It has just the right arch for my palm, the buttons are curved just right, I can get to both of the side buttons without a problem, and the mousewheel scrolls with hardly any effort from my finger. You can get it for pretty cheap nowadays and I still like it more than the wireless Logitec MX700 that I own (I only use it because my desk's setup at school makes the MS mouse's cord too short).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I use a Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse at home...it's almost the same as the mouse you linked to, except without side buttons. At school, I use a Razer Pro|Click v1.6, which is actually the best mouse that I've used...I think that the high sensitivity lets me move it around less, and it slides really easily.

Both mice will cause my wrist to ache after a while, though, which makes me even more worried that I've already done some damage to it. I don't have any pain when I'm typing, though, so I'm probably not developing carpal tunnel just yet...I hope.

FELIPE NO

Any chance you could take a picture of your current setup? I don't know anyone else that's young and has the problem of an aching wrist after mousing for an extended period of time.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

Any chance you could take a picture of your current setup? I don't know anyone else that's young and has the problem of an aching wrist after mousing for an extended period of time.

How young is young? I'm just 30 and I have the most horrible aches and pains, if I don't remember to take frequent breaks from gaming, or working on a PC. It's just a fact of life for me, by now. It's not always exactly painful, as long as I adopt "best practice" in regards to the various things in the thread, but it's always there, even if it's hovering barely above the threshold of notice.

Perhaps you were referring to people younger than myself, though.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

Any chance you could take a picture of your current setup? I don't know anyone else that's young and has the problem of an aching wrist after mousing for an extended period of time.

I don't have a digital camera handy at the moment (though I've finally saved up enough to buy an SLR, so that will DEFINITELY be changing soon!), but I do try to follow the basic ergonomic guidelines as best as I can. I have my mouse and keyboard set up close to my body so I don't have to reach for them, they're very slightly below my arm level, and I don't bend my wrists when I'm using either of them.

At my desk at school, the mouse is placed too high, but I still avoid bending my wrist when I'm using it...for the most part, it's light and sensitive enough that I only need to use my fingers to work with it. I can't really change the desk layout or chair height, so that's the only thing I can really do there.

In both cases, though, after a couple of hours of pretty much anything that involves a lot of mouse usage (FPS games can be particularly bad), my wrist will start to hurt a bit. The actual ache isn't so bad yet, but it still worries me a lot...I'm only 19, and I don't want to wind up so bad that I can barely use a computer.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Perhaps you should try a vertical mouse. A coworker of mine has one of these and he loves it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by russ

Perhaps you should try a vertical mouse. A coworker of mine has one of these and he loves it.

That's actually a really interesting-looking...um, thing! Is it only sold through their website, though? I'd really have to try one out before I paid that much money for any input device, or at least buy it from a website that had a fairly lenient return policy.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I don't know man, try ebay to see if you can get it for a better price.

I was speaking idiomatically.

A while back I used to have really bad wrist pains in my mousing hand when it was set up just slightly too high for where I like it. It would hurt to turn my wrist for about thirty minutes after using my computer for any period of time more than an hour or so. After I bought a wireless mouse and nabbed a TV table from another room I was able to stop the pains within a few days.

If you're not moving your hand when you're mousing (using a really high sensitivity like me, I'm guessing), then why do you think not moving your hand while trackballing will help out at all?

Most amazing jew boots

You should definitely consider small changes before you go out and purchase a brand new peripheral. I have a pullout keyboard/mouse drawer and my arm actually rests above the mouse. I was using a pad that I bought from Best Buy which had a soft, gel, wrist support, and although it helped when I was at school I found it was causing my wrist to hurt at home. I ditched the pad altogether and now my wrist usually feels fine. So you might try getting some sort of wrist support to see if that helps in your situation.

FELIPE NO