XTracPads Fat Mat

Test Setup

Published: 11th October 2007 | Source: XTracPads | Price: US$28.95 | Author: Matthew Fogg

Test Setup

For the testing part of the review today I will be using my current rig - AquAus

AquAus is currently running dual boot Microsoft Windows XP/Vista and is fully patched and using the latest available drivers at the time of review. Components included are:

*Intel Core 2 Duo e6850 Rev. G0 (L723A)
*Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi
*ASUS EN8800 GTS
*2GB OCZ PC2-6400 FlexXLC Cas 3 (5-4-4-15)
*2 x 250GB SATA II Seagate NCQ 16Mb cache 7200.10 - RAID 0
*1 x 200 SATA Seagate Barracuda (Storage)
*Pioneer DVR-A11XLB DVD
*Silverstone Strider ST60F 600W Modular PSU
*Black Silverstone SST-TJ-07BW Full tower case
*Scythe Kama Meter fan controller
*Custom water-cooling

All testing will be conducted from within Windows Vista.

Testing Method

In order to try and give our readers an holistic idea of how the XTracPads Fat Mat performs, I will be testing under conditions that the 'average Joe user' would more than likely encounter. For the first phase of the testing I will throw myself, my Logitech G7 and the Fat Max into first person shooter-ville. I will be using Valve's Counter Strike:Source; idsoftware's Quake 4; infinity ward's Call Of Duty 2 and for good measure some MMORPG courtesy of World of Warcraft.

For the second testing phase I will be looking at how well the Fat Mat allows for user control when browsing the internet, along with some image manipulation courtesy of Adobe Photoshop CS3.

For the record my gaming style is predominantly that of a 'twitch gamer' as I usually play first person shooters as a preference. However for the gaming test phase I shall attempt to report as objectively as possible for those who aren't. Let's get gaming...