[4to15Characters]

My problem is that I've got a noisy room and I sit about 2-4 feet from where I keep my mic, and it's too much of a hassle to lean over my desk to speak into a mic just to talk to my friends. I'd get an AntLion ModMic, but I wear multiple different headphones and sometimes no headphones, plus they'd defeat the whole purpose of the wireless headphones I have.
 
It may seem a bit overkill, but I've tried most everything from Blue and beyond but the best thing I've found thus far is the MXL AC404. It's okay, but it picks up too much including, but not limited to, people and TVs in other rooms, my PC fans, my keyboard, and my creaking chair, but at least it picks them up clearly and doesn't add any hiss.
 
What I haven't tried yet are shotgun mics, which, to my understanding, could be exactly what I want since they're good at picking up noise farther away in a limited width as opposed to the cardioid mics I've been using up until now.
 
So what shotgun mic would be best for my purposes, if I'm correct in that a shotgun mic is, indeed, correct for my purposes. I'd prefer to keep my budget under $150 but feel free to throw out some suggestions even if it's more and you really think it'll make a difference for me.
 
Here's my setup:

I keep my mic on top of the left speaker. That's my (noisy) PC to the far left and my (relatively) quieter iMac next to it.

 

[Currawong]

Nice user name.
 
I'm actually interested in the answer to this as well. I suspect that given my poor experiences with cheap shotgun mics picking up way too much noise, that the answer is going to be a professional model in the hundreds of dollars.

 

[4to15Characters]

Thanks
 
From what I can tell from my research, Audio Technica and Rode are the two biggest brands for shotgun mics. For our specific needs, the NTG2 is what keeps popping up in the top 10 lists. I'm interested to hear if that's actually what I want or if there's something cheaper that'll get the job done.
 
The biggest issue for finding the right mic for something as mundane as Skype and gaming out of the shotgun mic category so far seems to be that shotgun mics are meant to be used professionally, and most of these models I'm seeing look like their meant to be either mounted on top of a camera or from a boom.
 
All I need is a yard long, two meter wide cone where sound is picked up and no sound outside. Is that too much to ask?

 

[4to15Characters]

Nobody?
 
I'm basically here because whenever I read forum posts online about solutions to problems like this, the usual reply is "It's not possible unless you get some 'crazy' shotgun mic." Well now here I am asking what 'crazy' shotgun mic will do the trick.

 

[Dobrescu George]

This is a really old thread, but I did a little review on the Rode NTG2 mic that may be the solution to what you need. Or rode NTG3B. Now, finding a good interface for them may be an entirely different story....