All right that's my complete review of the Razer diamondback(1st generation lightning plasma mouse).

Intro

Voila Voila.........first mouse I bought in Canada. It was on a cut price of $39 at bestbuy which was $10-12 less than the normal price. There was only the blue one left not that I wanted some other colors. After getting some reward points on my account, I took the bus to the University where I could barely resist the temptation of unpackaging it.

The Package

The Diamondback came in the green box which is typical of Razer. The box is way better looking than the Intelli 3.0 packaging and the inside looks more refined and stylistic. You will probably like it a lot if you like using the box to move from lan to lan. The mouse comes with the driver cd and the manual.

Pros :
Nice packaging
Easy to put your mouse inside and carry it to lans.

Cons
Driver is outdated and they speak too much thrash on the box.

Testing it

The diamondback is so sexy when you plug it in. Imagine some blue light in those dark university lecture rooms. I definitely like the blue light coming out.

The mousefeet are really something new, that was a revolution at the time this mouse was launched on the market. This is definitely an upgrade on the old MS 3.0 and the MX 510. However if you use some mousepad made of hard plastic or steel, it is preferable to order or have some extra mouse feet in supply to avoid any let downs. Hey mouse feet get worn out easily.
I am not going to talk about engines or whatever because I am simply not a tester. However rest assured because from reliable sources I can confirm that the dpi of the mouse(default) is really 1600dpi. The mouse does not malfunction even with high speeds movements.
I am mainly a counter strike player so it's no surprise i'm gonna test this toy on Counter Strike 1.6 and CS:Zero. Since I am a low sens user, I'd say that playing with the diamondback was like a big change.(default dpi is twice of my old g1). I felt a bit bizarre at first because I felt like I just played CS ala Quake style. I found it hard to aim at first but i guessed that was the change in dpi which is the problem. I tried desperately getting back to a lower sens that is playable, this without making use of the driver but it was vain.(I already use noforce commands). If you can't play around then this mouse is not for the fellow low sens players.
Exit the cloth pad and welcome the func hard plastic mousepad. Func is ideal for high sens gamers since it allows for better movement(rough side). There I felt way better, I switched back to the old times where I was like using 4.0 sensitivity without the noforce commandes. I really had some good first times with the Ak and the deagles but getting a good recoil was pretty hard. This mouse has the shape of a low sens mouse with the the ability of a high sens mouse. This means the mouse is way to small to get the feeling of a good mx510,mx518 or the ms3.0.
Lateral movements are alrite but the vertical movements really sucked a lot from what I've observed. The buttons are also a real joke, they're too sensitive. I'd recommend you to unbind them, but again a lot of my fellow gamers like side buttons.
Now let's install the driver and try the mouse. Haha guess what there's probably a newer version of the driver software on the net so download it rather than take it from the CD. At the time the features of the software were probably revolutionary because it offers control of X & Y axis, sensitivity of the mouse and the choice between dpi(400 & 1600). The software doesn't really work as well as the one for the latest razer mice.i tried configurating the mouse using the software but i don't really have the feeling it works. The only thing i say really worked was that the razer did a good job setting up the windows sensitivity.

Conclusion

Pros

Price is pretty affordable compared to the other razer products.
Nice packaging and mousefeet compared with a sexy design.
Good performance of the optical engine(its the same as the mx51 series)

Cons

Mice is not perfect if you know that this mouse has an upgraded version(the 3G version).
Driver independency is laughable.
Side buttons are gay.
If lowering the dpi was easier, I'd take this mouse for the low sens gaming however this is not the case and it's too slow to have a good high sens gaming.

Rating : 8/10

Endnotes
If you want similar mouse, better price and same performance except for the dpi, buy yourself the logitech g-1 if you can get one. G-1 is perfect for low sens gamers and the optical engine is the same except for the dpi thing. But 800 dpi is already an upgrade on ms3.0 or ms1.1.