I'd go with what Thunder said. I own both a Saitek Cyborg 3D and a SideWinder FF2, and both have their pros and cons. Whats good with the Saitek is that its REALLY adjustable, even comes with its own screw driver, so you can place the throttle to the right, and adjust the thumb buttons accordingly. Even place the hand rest higher or lower to you're needs. Being left handed, I found it the most comfortable and effective joystick. However, the internal wiring isn't of the best sort, and I'm such a user to get a wee bit exited while playing any simulator, and found that soon some of the wiring (the twisting axis wire) started to either detach or weaken. A simple job to fix, when all hell brakes loose, but after a while my joystick started to always fly to the left faster than it did to right.
So I went and bought the Sidewinder FF2, which is a kickass joystick. It isn't adjustable for lefties, but everything else software wise is adjustable. You can adjust its deadzone, its stiffness, and of course its FF strength. It doesen't have many cons either. Except the VIA bus problem, that can be easily fixed when getting the patch. And the one small annoyance in my oppinion where the joystick is only active while its being used, but when you let go it goes totally limp as if it broke, but once you hold it again it works. I guess its a way of coserving power, but otherwise its a really good joystick.
The Saitek has about 10 buttons and a HAT and the SWFF2 has about 8 and a HAT. Both have a throttle. On throttles, the saitek has a stiffer throttle than the FF2, which I like. But thats just me.
But personally, even though I'm a leftie, I'd go for the FF2. Good quality, and how can ya beat the shaking and thudding and loss of control when a beam hits you? aaaaaah...
