What gear do you use to play Doom (mouse, pad, keyboard, monitor)?

[Fluuschoen]

I'm not sure if this question would be better posted in the Everything Else subforum or not, but since it directly relates to Doom, I thought it's okay, if I ask this in Doom General.

So the question is simple: what gear (mouse, mousepad, keyboard, monitor and even headphones/speakers/MIDI device) do you use to play Doom?

I'm just interested in fellow players' preferences and the most popular hardware around these parts. I was always and FPS/related hardware nerd, did the same stuff with quakers as well. It can give you tips and some unexpected insight sometimes, but if it doesn't, that's fine as well. It's fun for me, anyways. For the simplicity, you can use the following template:
 

• mouse:
• mouse pad:
• keyboard:
• monitor:
• headphones/speakers:

It will be more clean-cut this way. I mean, if people are actually gonna give info in this thread and it won't stay a one-man topic, which is my utmost specialty. : D If you'd like, you can also share your mouse and keyboard settings, cm/180° etc. I'm primarily interested in mouse players' stuff, as they use the same input method I do.

So atm, the main combo for me is
 

• mouse: Pulsar Xlite (black, black Corepad Grips, mint green paracord 550 + ferrite ring, Hyperglide MX-2)
• mouse pad: Artisan Zero Classic XSOFT L
• keyboard: Ducky One 3 Mini DayBreak (Cherry MX Speed Silver + 40A/Thick Glorious O-rings) || Akko 3068B Plus (white, Akko CS Jelly Silver/CS Jelly Purple)
• monitor: 2 x LG 24GM77 @ 144 Hz, DAS on, Motion 240 off | Icy Box VESA
• headphones/speakers: SteelSeries 4H | Apple EarPods, but I rarely use those (headaches), I tend to go with the old school Onkyo TX-7530 + Pioneer CS-E420 duet (or nowadays with the budget king little Genius SP-HF 1250B : < because placement and such issues).

future plans: Getting a Focusrite Scarlet Solo external sound card, a set of  M-Audio Bx5 D3 speakers (due to constraints regarding desk size) and an original Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 unit. The latter would be especially cool!


Feel free to post, I'm eager to read the replies (well, if there will be any)! You can also share your future plans of upgrades (if you have some), that's also interesting in its own right!

Edited February 7, 2023 by Fluuschoen
Well, new stuff. : >

[7Mahonin]

mouse: Alienware wired USB 3 button mouse. The reason is because the mousewheel is not finicky at all, so using the middle button is much easier with this mouse than others I've tried, asides from CAD-style 3 button mice, which have 3 full buttons, no wheel, but this has become my go-to mouse for the past 2 years. I don't care for Alienware laptops and whatnot, but this mouse has been great and was cheap. I have used many different mice throughout the years, and this one just does the trick to the point all my other mice sit in storage for now.

mouse pad: I have no clue what it is brand wise, but it was bought off Amazon. It's just a huge black mousepad that I can fit under the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I prefer mousepads that don't have the "wrist support" or what I like to refer to as "gel butt" because those things get in the way a lot of the times for my oversized hands.

keyboard: A DELL full size mechanical keyboard. Has a card reader on it that I'll never use but it was a hand-me down. It works as I need it to, and I prefer these keyboards for gaming compared to membrane ones.

monitor: 1080p Vizio. I've had this for nearly 10 years probably. It just works.

headphones/speakers: I just use the speakers attached to the TV monitor at the moment. I do have some external speakers but they're ancient and take up too much space for my current "desk". I rarely use headphones within my home.

[Kute]

mouse - razr naga trinity

mousepad - my bed

monitor - some 4k 60 inch LG TV

 

I'd be more curious what kind of graphics card a retro game community is packing. I have a 3070 in my gaming PC but I have some other gpus in my mining rig, a 6700 xt, rx 5700, 2070, 1660s. Sold a 3060ti last week for more than I paid for it, after mining on it for 6 months. The 3070 does 110 fps in DoOm EteRNaL @4k on uhh, quality DLSS with RTX on

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by Kute

[Fluuschoen]

7 hours ago, Kute said:

I'd be more curious what kind of graphics card a retro game community is packing. 

 

I steadily downgraded it after I got a GTX 1080 Ti instead of the fine-tuned Vega 56 (V64 clocks, 190 W TDP limit, and still cooler and quieter than reference V56 settings). So from there, I went MSI Armor GTX 1080 Ti ---> GTX 980 Ti Founders ----> EVGA GTX 950 SC, because I really didn't play anything else besides classic Doom in more than 1,5 years now (and I even use 640 x 480 for that, not Full HD). With the VGA prices are being where they are now, I figured it's just dumb sitting on so much money, when a cosiderably weaker card can work basically just the same, with less power draw and better thermals; still getting 700-3000 fps.

I played Eternal with the overclocked V56, and got 120-190 fps on 720p/Nightmare settings and 220-300 fps @ 720p/low settings (with Ryzen 7 2700 @ 4 GHz and 2 x 8 GB DDR4-2933, this part of the rig is still the same). Was glorious stuff, the game has a really well optimized and responsive engine (id Tech 7). I put the most money in peripherals lately (have 16 good mice, 9 pretty rare/niche pads and 5 keyboards : D – yeah, got a screw loose : D, but this is how you find your ultimate gear, and I feel I'm getting pretty close to that). 

When the VGA prices will go down to normal levels, I guess I'll get a GTX 1660 Super / RTX 2060 Super with the best cooling I can find for 300 mm length, just for the sake of it.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Fluuschoen

[Scorpio]

mouse: Apple Magic Mouse

mouse pad: Aluminium Pad NIYE

keyboard, monitor, headphones/speakers: Apple MacBook Air M1 :)

[idbeholdME]

mouse: don't use it for Doom

mouse pad: never used one. Kinda hate them to be honest and don't see the point.

keyboard: SteelSeries 6Gv2. Doom is the main reason I got a mechanical keyboard, so that all input combos would work without it beeping at me due to shitty keyboards registering only 3 keys simultaneously with some combinations.

monitor: The same one I use for anything else. A 27 inch, 1440p, 240 Hz, Lenovo Legion Y27gq-25.

speakers: A pretty basic Creative 2.1 speaker set. Quite old, but still sounds great. Never used headphones.

Edited February 26, 2022 by idbeholdME

[dasho]

Quote

Kinda hate them to be honest and don't see the point.

 

You will when you have a desk with a reflective or glossy surface.

[ImproversGaming]

My setup (note: I am not an expert gamer):

Mouse: G-LAB Combo KRYPTON - Wired Gaming Mouse Multicolor LED Backlight

mouse pad: Some random thing that may not even be a mouse mat (it looks and is in the shape of a rabbit holding a heart)

Keyboard: G-LAB Combo KRYPTON - Wired Gaming Keyboard Multicolor LED Backlight

Monitor: HP LP2465 (really old and not good)

Headphones/Speakers: SPKPAL S600 PC Speakers, 2.0 USB-Powered Computer Speakers for Desktop Gaming with Dynamic RGB Light Up

 

In case it is of interest I run on a computer I built a couple of years ago:

ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac CPUs

1 x Intel Core i5 8500 Coffee Lake Desktop Processor/C

Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB Mini GDDR5 Graphics Card – Black

2 x Ballistix Sport LT BLS8G4D240FSE 8 GB (DDR4, 2400 MT/s, PC4-19200, DR x8, DIMM, 288-Pin) Memory, Red

1 x 500GB Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SATA SSD/Solid State Dr

[Lippeth]

• mouse: Logitech G43 Hero - it feels like a knockoff version somehow. It's my second one, but this one has no braided cable and the mouse wheel creaks.
• mouse pad: A cheap table length gaming mouse pad I found on Amazon.
• keyboard: Ducky One 2 with Cherry MX Brown switches. It has a dedicated calculator button that I thought was dumb, but I use it all the time.
• monitor: Samsung 27" curved monitor with FreeSync.
• headphones/speakers: Wharfedale Diamond 8.2 studio monitors that sit on stands next to the desk. I do have some Audio Technica headphones (m40x I think?) but only use them when recording vocals or field recording. Using headphones for entertainment drives me crazy, and I can't do VR either for similar reasons.
• interface: Scarlett Focusrite 4i4 because it has a MIDI output, and I use an A/B switch to go between my Mac and PC.
• MIDI: Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 as well as a mkII. I use the mkII way more often because it has more voices, but I love how the vibraslap sounds on the first one. I'd say I only use it about 30% of the time when playing Doom, there are too many great software MIDI options. I recently actually paid for a soundfont that I like from someone who helped develop the Gravis Ultrasound, and we even had a short phone conversation which made my day! http://www.voicecrystal.com/sfengine.mv (unsecured website so don't enter any sensitive info).

On the PC side I've got an Intel i9-9900K, RTX 2080 SUPER, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM and lots of solid state drives, both SATA and NVMe. It was the first computer I ever built and I would love to do it again if it weren't so expensive.

[ClumsyDoomer]

• mouse: Razer deathadder essential. Very weak switches, but the best shape I've ever tried
• mouse pad: Something cheap, the logo is long gone
• keyboard: Tesoro durandal, cherry MX red. It's almost 10 years old and still working like a charm
• monitor: Benq 21.5", 1080p
• headphones/speakers: JBL LSR305 speakers, plugged into a behringer UMC202HD. No headphones, and I'd totally agree that one can only be a dedicated fan of headphones until they try a decent set of speakers.
  
  Plans: just hope it all lasts longer

[gwain]

dollar store mouse

hdmi output insignia tv

storage unit keyboard

my desk as a mouse pad

 

plans:sell mouse for better computer

[Azuris]

Was not easy to find a greyish keyboard.

Cherry had one.

[FEZ_GG]

Monitor: 23 inch Insignia TV that I've had for 8 years.
Keyboard: Hyper X Alloy FPS mechanical keyboard.
Mouse: Razer Naga Left-Handed edition.

This particular mouse has become vital to FPS's for me.  I use all the side buttons for swapping to weapons so I can keep my fingers on the movement keys at all times.

[msx2plus]

monitor: an early lg ultrawide (1080p60), it's fine. don't need anything fancier.

mouse: logitech mx vertical (i highly recommend vertical mice)

mousepad: just some basic shit with a wrist rest

kb: durgod taurus w/ brown switches & xda caps

headphones/speakers: akg k702 & beyerdynamic dt770. more importantly re: doom though, i just about always use my roland sc-88pro when the wad has a midi soundtrack.

 

my machine is primarily for creative work, so comfort in that regard comes before anything else.

[Werge]

I haven't gotten a desktop computer yet, so I play with:

 

Mouse: Unknown Logitech Mouse.

Mouse Pad: Don't have one.

Keyboard: HP Laptop Keyboard.

Monitor: 14" inch HP Laptop Monitor

Headphones/Speakers: Apple Earphones.

 

I know my setup sucks, but I'm currently under temporary living circumstances so this is what I work with.

[brick]

Mouse: Anker ergonomic mouse. Once I started using horizontal mice I could never go back.

Pad: just a random souvenir one.

Keyboard: IBM keyboard, from before they started calling them "mechanical". I got it used 12 years ago; it's probably over 2 decades old at this point and will probably last this long again.

Monitor: Philips 22''. I play almost exclusively old games nowadays, and this one has an option that I rarely see anymore to change the aspect ratio. Very convenient for windowed-only oldies, since GPU scaling won't do anything there.

Speakers: a pair of Edifiers that I really like. I also have a Bose headset that I rarely use.

MIDI: Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 mkII. I kinda wish I also got the original SC-55 at the same time (they were dirt cheap back then). I don't mind using soundfonts and softsynths for custom MIDI packs and with Heretic as with those I cannot readily tell the difference, but with the original Doom music (and to a lesser extent Hexen) I find the SC-55 sounds recognizably different and much richer on many tracks.

My PC is a 7 year old i7 with a GTX 970. Runs well for its age but some of the more demanding GZDoom or Eternity wads complain once in a while.

 

Plans: mostly just hope nothing breaks, especially the Sound Canvas, as I don't think I'd want to pay what they now cost to replace it. I have a feeling the Philips will also not live forever, as it's already replacing an LG I liked even more that died on me. I'd like to upgrade the GPU but I don't think it'd make sense without overhauling the entire PC. I also should look into a better pad with wrist rest, and maybe one of those for the keyboard too.

Edited February 26, 2022 by brick

[Mayomancer]

mouse: Razer Deathadder 2013, it's been holding up great so far

mouse pad: Razer Goliathus with a D.Va pattern, it was cute even though I don't play overwatch

keyboard: Varmilo VA88M Charcoal with Cherry MX Browns

monitor: AOC G2460V, 1080p 75hz 1ms

headphones/speakers: Astro A10

Edited February 26, 2022 by Mayomancer

[OkDoomer174]

Mouse: Glorious Model D. Got it as a gift from a friend. Super ergonomic, doesn't go over the top with unnecessary side buttons.

Mouse pad: I don't know. Some 8x7 plain black mousepad that gets marks on it really easily (most of the time it looks gray). I've had it for three years, since I got my own computer.

Keyboard: Royal Kludge RK920 with blue switches. A full-size keyboard that I only got because I use the numpad for texture offsets and occasionally scale in UDB. It's my first mechanical keyboard and I must say it's really nice. I might go for linear switches next time, though.

Monitor: Acer R241Y Bbix. A 23.8", 1080p, 75hz monitor. It used to be used with my family computer, but we eventually got rid of it (and by that I mean handed it down to me) and replaced it with my old laptop. It works, and that's about it. It's not like my PC can push anything more, though.

Headphones/speakers: Steelseries Arctis Prime. Easily my favorite part of my whole setup. Such a great headset; high quality without all the flashiness at only $100 (got it for $75 on sale).
 

PC: Asus Vivobook 15 F512. My first AMD machine and my second laptop. It's not much, but it was way better than a first-gen i5. Specs are below:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3250U. 2C/4T at 2.6GHz base, 3.5GHz boost. Seriously could use some overclocking, but alas, Ryzen U is locked.
• GPU: Integrated Vega 3. So sad.
• RAM: DDR4, 4G soldered, 4G socketed, 2666MHz iirc. Once again, not the best. I've been on the fence about putting an 8G or 16G stick for a while (12G total is max supported, however I have read that it can take 20G).
• Storage: 128G internal M.2, 3TB external hard drive. Enough for what I need.

 

[Remilia Scarlet]

mouse: Logitech G502 gaming mouse

mouse pad: An oppai mouse pad with Tokisaki Kurumi on it

keyboard: Das Keyboard with blank keys and blue switches

monitor: A 28" 4K Samsung monitor (U28E590 I believe)

headphones/speakers: Headphones, I forget the brand but they sound close enough to Sony MDR7506's for my taste.  Sometimes Rokkit 6 speakers instead, but rarely.  I use a Sound Blaster X-Fi thing for the headphones and an M-Audio interface for the speakers.

 

Computer is custom built.  It started life in 2003 and has just been continually updated since.  I think a few cables or screws might still be the originals...

RAM: 48GB

GPU: GTX 1080

Drives: Mix of SSDs and HDDs.  I forget how much I have, but since it's all networked, it amounts to something like 14 TB of space.  About 5TB over two SSDs and two HDDs on my desktop locally, though.

OS: Slackware Linux 15.0

 

Edited February 27, 2022 by Remilia Scarlet

[Arrowhead]

mouse: Logitech G203

mouse pad: Unofficial classic Doom mousepad

keyboard: Durgod Taurus K320 w/ Speed Silver Cherry MX switches

monitor: Curved 30'' MSI Monitor

headphones/speakers: Sony MDR-7506 headphones, Logitech z623 PC speakers

PC: ABS prebuilt w/ 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM, RTX 3080, i9, Aorus motherboard

:)

[Remilia Scarlet]

derp, accidentally quoted instead of edited

Edited February 27, 2022 by Remilia Scarlet
accidentally quoted myself rofl

[SilentD00mer]

Mouse: Logitech M90(yeah, old, maybe, but still functional :)

Mouse pad: any small one

Keyboard: a generic keyboard from 4 (or more?) years ago;

Monitor: a 15" AOC 60Hz monitor

Headphones/speakers: a generic headphone, I don't remember the brand.

[Arrowhead]

12 minutes ago, Remilia Scarlet said:

headphones/speakers: Headphones, I forget the brand but they sound close enough to Sony MDR7506's for my taste.

I bought a pair of MDR7506's when I was told how 'well balanced' the sound is. Great 'phones. Bass is pretty nice, too. :)

[Remilia Scarlet]

Just now, Arrowhead said:

I bought a pair of MDR7506's when I was told how 'well balanced' the sound is. Great 'phones. Bass is pretty nice, too. :)

Those are BY FAR my favorite headphones ever.  I love how flat, yet rich, they sound.  I originally bought them for music work, but stuck with them out of preference.

[BloodyBlink1982]

On 2/25/2022 at 8:33 PM, Fluuschoen said:

I'm not sure if this question would be better posted in the Everything Else subforum or not, but since it directly relates to Doom, I thought it's okay, if I ask this in Doom General.

So the question is simple: what gear (mouse, mousepad, keyboard, monitor and even headphones/speakers/MIDI device) do you use to play Doom?

I'm just interested in fellow players' preferences and the most popular hardware around these parts. I was always and FPS/related hardware nerd, did the same stuff with quakers as well. It can give you tips and some unexpected insight sometimes, but if it doesn't, that's fine as well. It's fun for me, anyways. For the simplicity, you can use the following template:
 

• mouse:
• mouse pad:
• keyboard:
• monitor:
• headphones/speakers:

 

Mouse: Lenrue

Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow V3

Monitor:AOC e2250swd 22 – inch Widescreen LED Monitor HD

Headphones: BENGOO G9000

[heliumlamb]

mouse: zowie za11, on its 2nd set of microswitches.
mousepad: grody old steelseries qck heavy

monitor: benq RL2455, with one single dead pixel
keyboard: wasd keyboards v2, tenkeyless with cherry mx clear switches
headphones: sony mdr7506 or akg k240 studio, depends on how i'm feeling but prefer the sony cans usually

about 75% of the time i'll use a mouse for doom but if i'm on my thinkpad, it's keyboard only full time for me >:3c. keyboard only hits different

[Fluuschoen]

On 2/27/2022 at 3:18 AM, heliumlamb said:

mouse: zowie za11, on its 2nd set of microswitches.

Good  to see people who won't throw out a preferred mouse, because it should be repaired for a few bucks. What did you got in there after the Huanos?


Nice keyboard and headphone(s) btw.

 

On 2/27/2022 at 3:18 AM, heliumlamb said:

keyboard only hits different

Like literally.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Fluuschoen

[Murdoch]

An AOC 24inch monitor, a mechanical keyboard whose make escapes me right now, Logitech comfort mouse, leather pants and vest, chains and half a bottle of baby oil. Don't ask. It's an attitude thing.

[Fluuschoen]

1 minute ago, Murdoch said:

leather pants and vest, chains and half a bottle of baby oil. Don't ask. It's an attitude thing.

It's better when it's dry, so it can properly escalate. Trust me, I'm an expert in the field.

[BaileyTW]

A 10 dollar wireless mouse I got to replace my old one. Some "power gear" mouse.

 

An aging Acer Aspire e 15 (judging by the worn sticker on it though that might refer to multiple laptops). I think it's supposed to have 8gb of ram, it actually has 6 which I guess having this for 6 years has worn from it which I don't know enough about hardware to know if that works that way, but the aging of this laptop hasworn the network adapter so much that the internet connection is far too shitty to ever get into deathmatch and the one attempt I made to play a mod on gzdoom had the thing heating up enough where the internet adapter temporarily gets shittier. That's not saying much though since even playing Morrowind does that.

 

Got some cheap skullcandy earphones. They are cheap I don't know enough about earphones to know if they are good cheap ones but they tend to last me a while and longevity per dollar is what I care about the most.

 

Do hope to maybe replace my laptop soonish. To what I don't know, but that network adapter is quite shit and I would like to deathmatch some day.