Since Dell offers the R.A.T. 5 and 7, shouldn't they also offer the R.A.T 9?

I didn't test these exact devices, but we did test a nice HP set (keyboard and mouse) and a Microsoft set. They were wireless (special frequency) and not BlueTooth 2.x. Fresh alkaline or lithium batteries installed.

We found they worked fine for casual web surfing and general office computing.

However, during intense gaming sessions, they tended to lag at points and also dropped key presses, mouse clicks etc. I would not recommend wireless for gaming.

If your laptop has BlueTooth 2.x, it's nice to use a BT mouse (no dongle) when traveling... just keep a wired mouse available for gaming.

If someone finds these particular devices work better, it would be good to know.

i use a bluetooth setup logitech MX5500 keyboard/mouse for gaming and the difference in responce between the M17X bluetooth and the included reciver is stupidly noticable to the point its like the bluetooth on the laptop shuts down now comparing this bluetooth combo to my G15 First gen and my G9  mouse honestly i cant see a difference as long as im using the bluetooth reciver that came with the combo  since using dells bluetooth makes it almost unusable  for gaming  but again its logitech :O

I have the Logitech DiNovo Media (with seperate Media Pad) and an MX Revolutions Mouse both running via the built in Bluetooth on an Area 51 ALX.  I have had no real problems with it except that sometimes the keyboard doesn't register as connected after a long sleep (Logitech also puts its keyboards to sleep if you're not using them which means you ahve to wait for it to start up again).

I really doubt I would use a Bluetooth mouse for serious games.  Maybe if you were only playing chess or something like Civilisation where it's not incredibly important to have highly responsive equipment.

From what I've been reading I want to make something clear. The R.A.T. 9 is NOT a bluetooth mouse, it is a 2.4Ghz wireless mouse with a 1ms response time. The 5 and 7 versions are both wired mice and the R.A.T. 7 won the IGN Best of 2010 award.

This why I included the link to it so that people could read the specifications for the mouse.

Id go with the Logitech G9x you should always use a wired mouse if you are gaming. It is very reliable with a weight system that is actually usable cause the mouse is light. 5700 Dpi instead of 5600. Also pretty much the same features button wise. It does have less buttons but that thing has too many in my opinion. Logitech > mad catz. I use a wired on even my laptop I just plug it into the port on the opposite side and the cord doesnt get in the way.

Dell doesn't need to sell it . Just get the free mouse with the system (it's nice to have a wired USB optical mouse as a spare anyway).

Let us know how you like it, and if it really has 1ms.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/12/01/review-mad-catz-cyborg-r-a-t-9-gaming-mouse/

Seems they are currently unavailable.

I'v been using a Razer Mamba for a little over a year now and I love it.

http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.169418100/parentCategoryID.35208800/categoryId.35210600