steelseries can be washed with slightly soapy water and a very soft brush, although some people just put it in the washing machine.

http://4seasonsgaming.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=152&t=2729

ball mouse

Many say abyssus is the best claw grip, and then there's so many others for palm grip (mx518, DA, g400...)

I personally use a kana now.. it's a frickin great mouse, but the braided cable can be annoying and make movement a bit uncomfortable, and I ahve to clear my table :) (the cable is just really tough)

notes: my intellimouse 3.0 (steelseries one) broke after like 5 months.. right mouse button stopped working completely. otherwise I'd be using that now if it didn't.

3.0 : Change microswitch ---> PROFIT

Thanks for the tip. Might actually try that soon. I kinda felt like that mouse was the one for me, but it was hard to get a new one since it broke.. :)

Guess I'll open it up tonight and see what kind of switch is in there :) unless if my wife threw it away...

Buy japanese Omrons.

Btw there are a ton of 3.0 on eBay.

razer abyssus, no contest

I threw out Abyssus in the abyss when I bought Steelseries Kana. Bought just as some mouse to use with laptop, but it turned out so much better that I switched to it as main mouse.
Also, many people recommend Zowie mice.
Essentially, people started hyping Abyssus only because cypher&cooller used it, but now they both moved on to different mouses (cypher -> Kana, cooller -> Zowie EC2), so there is no need to recommend Abyssus anymore.

repeat after me: big mice suck, zowie is a stupid name, abyssus rulz

big mice suck = agreed
zowie is a stupid name = agreed
abyssus is inferior = agreed

Is there no such thing as a stupid question?*

Your first question is all about personal preference, but since you're asking I'll give it a shot anyway :D. Right now I'm using a Steelseries Kana which works really nice with claw grip, because of its small size. However, from my experience I tend to use more of a palm grip when I'm using a low sensitivity, giving a better feel when most of the movements are done from my entire arm. When I'm using a higher sens and/or mouseacceleration i find it better to use claw grip, as the small quick movements are easier to perform with your wrist and fingers. (Just personal experience and what i feel most comfortable with...)

You can perfectly wash your QcK using just normal water and some cloth to gently rub away the dirt/dust. Some people advice not to put it in the washing machine, while others say it works perfectly fine. I recommend to just try and wash it off by hand, and see if it does the job.

When using a QcK (or any other cloth pad) i find it quite useless to put on extra glides/teflon/whatever. It doesn't really help that much, compared to harder surfaces like steel or hard plastic. So my suggestion is to just play without glides on cloth pads.

Buy a zowie, clean that mousepad with the first option on #1.

wish the mouse was a bit cheaper, I'd give it a go :D