Need a gear!!

What kind of gaming gear do you use? I've missed all new tech hardware. Now i want to buy some good gear. So many interesting stuff around and so hard to choose. Maybe you'll help me. I know that MX510 and 700 are realy good. But the pads.... There's Xray, Icemat, Funk, Steelpad and many more.
My friends advice me Steelpad 4D. What will you advice?

Steelpad site-You can see 4D here.

[Jason425]

I use the mx1000 & ratpadzGS

[StinkyMojo]

I'm about to buy a pad.. I'm between the Steelpad and Funk.

[Prometheus]

WHY WOULD ANYONE BUY A MOUSE PAD FOR AN OPTICAL MOUSE


it doesnt make any sense scientifically

[StinkyMojo]

I'm not sure.. probably so I don't wear out the plastic pads under my mx500. I'm not using a pad now, I just use my desk's surface which is fine.

[Jason425]

Originally Posted by prometheus

WHY WOULD ANYONE BUY A MOUSE PAD FOR AN OPTICAL MOUSE


it doesnt make any sense scientifically

scientifically? if you want to get technical about it.. it's about surface resistance.. on a table it takes more force to get the mouse going, and often the movement you get from a table can be unreliable and varied.. when you're in an FPS, that gets you killed.. for me it has nothing to do with the feet...

[Prometheus]

oh god 1/10 of a milesecond saved.

[Jason425]

talking about leet mouse surfaces like that is like saying overclocking is pointless.. it might be to you.. but just because you might not want to give yourself every advantage possible, doesn't mean it's pointless...

[vee_ess]

Also, those surfaces have extremely consistent reflection characteristics allowing the optical mice to perform significantly more accurately.

EDIT: Just for clarification, I want to just say that I don't mean a perfectly smooth reflection surface; the sensor wouldn't pick up anything from that. (It would need some very fine texture that changes consistently...)

[Prometheus]

the best surface (hypotheisis) would be the OPPISITE of red whatever that is black maybe.