ROCCAT Savu Optical Gaming Mouse Review

ROCCAT Driver/Software

Once the driver is installed nothing really happens. You will need to go to your program list and run the Savu Driver app. The interface is pretty slick looking and well organized.

Options, options, options. The degree of control you have over the mouse is outstanding. Under the main control you have sensitivity, scroll speed, pointer speed, DPI setting etc. Advanced control allows you to set different sensitivities for the X and Y axis and change the polling rate.

You will also find some control over the colors being displayed from the bottom of the mouse. You can choose colors from a palette or entry your own RGB values or you can disable the light altogether. 0-255 gives you over 16 million colors to choose from although Im dubious over the ability of the LEDs to actually reproduce the full range. Even so, you really can achieve about any color you want.

The mouse also talks to you when certain things like DPI change or volume change happens when you use the interface or macro buttons. This can also be disabled.

There is a section that keeps track of how many button clicks and scroll steps youve made. Theyve also included their R.A.D. trophy system in case you havent gotten your fill of repetitive Farmville awards. Clicking, scrolling and other mouse functions will get you a trophy.

You can create up to five different profiles that save all your settings. Theyve done a very nice job of actually displaying the driver and firmware version in the update/support tab. They also include links to request support via email although they dont actually do anything. The link to submit a support form does take you to what you would expect and the Online Support button opens their main support page in a browser. Lastly, they have included a reset button to take everything back to the factory defaults.

They have also done an outstanding job with the macros. When you set the mouse buttons and scroll wheel up to do different things ROCCAT has given us the best of both worlds between pre-configured options and allowing us to do anything we want.

You can change the function of a mouse buttons standard action or in combination with the Easy-Shift[+] button. If you dont want the side button function to be back in your browser you can set it to do something else from a standard set of options ROCCAT provides or you can set your own macro.

When setting up a macro you again get some choices. You can choose pre-configured functions for many common apps or games. You can also define macros manually to do whatever you want. As you would expect from any high-end mouse it will also record delays between keystrokes. Once entered you can go back and edit the macro to change the keys pressed as well as setting the delay by typing in the number of milliseconds you want. Thats an invaluable feature for games that feature a cool down period between actions.

You are also able to assign the changing of a profile as a macro. This could add an interesting security feature to your desktop. Have problems with someone getting on your PC and prowling around? Create a profile and set mouse3 to cycle the profile down one. Change all the other mouse buttons to shut windows down when clicked. If anyone uses your mouse the PC will just turn off while you can change to a different profile with a simple click and be on your way.