Like you, I was looking for a good but relatively inexpensive stick for Tie Fighter. I ended up going with the Thrustmaster t16000m. Fry's Electronics (in California) had six of them sitting on the shelf for ~$50.

The reason I chose the t16000m instead of the HOTAS X is because it has hall effect sensors, which are supposed to retain their precision better over time than potentiometers. My thinking is that if you are going to buy a budget stick, you should try to get the one with the best components possible.

If I decide later to go full HOTAS, I'll probably keep this stick and get a standalone throttle/pedals to go with it.

What about the usual xbox controllers & clones that work on a pc? Would they work for these games?

Yes, but with some of them you might not quite get the full range of movement (which may not be a showstopper, but still irritating; I think both the XBox360 and e.g. Logitech F-series fall into this category, while some older cheapo Directinput gamepads don't for some reason).

Also, X-Wing/Tie Fighter specifically benefits from the wider range of movement = accuracy of flight sticks, when you are trying to keep that enemy fighter in your sights.

You may need to reassign quite many actions to the gamepad buttons, in order not to have to constantly take one of your hands off the gamepad to push some key on the keyboard in the heat of the battle.

But yeah, doable.

Thanks for answering. My son wanted to know :)

Which one is better? Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 vs. Thrustmaster 16000m?

As long as you are getting a flight stick for X-Wing be sure to check out the Descent series.

I'm allowing you to recommend this one again as I was finally able to track one down! The best part - I finally used some store credit that had been wasting space for ages, so it cost me nothing! Yay!

Now to pick up some flight sims... ;)

Help please - clueless wife here. Want to get my husband these games:

Tie-Fighter PC
X-Wing PC
from GOG

for Christmas and a good joystick but I am not sure what to do to make sure it's the right one. I'm seeing several confirmations that the T16000m is a good bet for the tie-fighter, but would it be equally good for both? Would you change your recommendations for a joystick that's best for both games?

I'd love to try and get it right without asking him, so that he can be surprised and still open his gift and start playing right away.

Thank you in advance for helping me out so that I can surprise him!