Ok, sorry for taking so long to get back to this thread. I hadn't seen a single reply in a while, though, and the thread had shifted downward significantly, so I figured no one wanted to respond (I'm not very familiar with the traffic on these forums), and I stopped checking on it.

Some details that I didn't mention in my first post: I'm fairly new to fighting games and don't want to invest much money in a controller (arcade or console style) until I know the genre is "for me". I also only plan on playing Guilty Gear and, probably later, BlazBlue on PC, and I don't plan on using a control stick. The Bleach fighting games on the DS got me accustomed to using a d-pad, and I'm comfortable with said input method as long as the d-pad is comfortable and sufficiently good for the genre, or at least sufficiently good for the games in question.

I posed this question on GameSpot, as well, and the impression I'm getting from both there and here is that, overall, if I'm to use a console-style controller, the Sega Saturn pad is about the best I can get for what I'll be using it for. A very helpful poster in my GameSpot thread made many recommendations, and the one that I'm currently looking at is this, which meets the requirements I spoke of above. I'm not expecting the best controller ever, nor am I expecting it to last me for years, but I think it should do for me until I figure out if I want to keep going with the genre.

That said, I'm still open to persuasion in other directions, but they're going to need d-pads that work well for fighting games like Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. I must admit that I'm kind of attracted to the Logitech F310 and F510. The 510 might be the better of the two, due to rubber grips. However, I think I read in one of the reviews that the d-pad (on either one) feels cheap (maybe because it's loud to use or because it's a "floating" design?). Whether it's better in construction or design than the above-linked Saturn pad's I can't be sure; all I know is that the Logitech ones are at least 2x the price. They also have four face buttons instead of six, which probably makes them less suited to fighting games, though I honestly can't be sure that that would be true of Guilty Gear, as there only seems to be one attack function outside of the four main ones, which makes its assignment to a shoulder button seem unproblematic. On the whole, I suppose I'm also a bit worried about analog sticks getting in my way, and this point favors the Saturn pad. Maybe another Logitech (wired) pad without sticks would work just as well?

I'll probably go for the Saturn pad due to price and great utility for fighting games... unless the Logitech pads are somehow significantly better.

Ok, sorry for rambling. I didn't think the post would end up this long....

I prefer Sony PS gamepad. The analog stick are much more comfy and smoother than the 360. The rubber grip also last longer than 360 without any sign of tearing at the surface.

However for ease and use and accessibility, go for Microsoft 360 controller for Windows, wired. Plug n Play, work with most games. Or maybe Razer Onza if you have spare cash.

I think that's a good choice. I'm pretty sure it's based on the 6 button Mega Drive controller and I think that was designed with Street Fighter 2 in mind.

It's not a fact that it's the best one ever, that's my opinion. But it would be the most ironic thing ever for me to be a fanbois when I so despise the company that sells those controllers and would rather they never see another dime in sales.

The important thing though is that nobody buys those crappy PS controllers. It's not just that the default one they bundle is so tiny, it's that they refuse to sell a scaled up version for adults as well. And seem to be under the delusion that it's fun to suffer from hand cramps and dropped controllers because you don't have anything to grip on to.

Nintendo same deal with their Wiifit boards, they're just not designed for adults. You can do most things with them, but good luck trying to sit on it for that part of the game. It's the same basic problem where they assume that everybody is the same dimensions as an Asian person, and even Asians are getting larger than they were in the past due to changes in nutrition.

The XBox controller at least is designed in a way which accommodates a larger set of hand sizes.

I remember reading somewhere that the best gamepads still remain the ones intended for use with DirectInput at the hardware level, as opposed to Xinput. Are such devices still available?

The Logitech F310 has already been suggested earlier in this thread, it uses a switch to change between Xinput and DirectInput and thus works great regardless of which system the game supports.

While that's true, do you really think the 360 controller is suited to 2D fighting games? >.>
There are plenty, the only problem is recent games total lack of support. Admittedly there are things such as Xpadder and the 360ce.

Ah yes, thanks. I've been in the market for a newer gamepad for the Legacy of Kain games, (to replace my old, crappy POS gamepad) and it looks like this one will fit the bill nicely.

I don't think anyone could argue that Halo is what the 360 gamepad was optimized for...

Well, as far as optimized goes, an arcade stick is almost certainly the best option. Albeit way out of the price range of what the OP is likely able to pay. And unless I'm missing something, I think there's a reason why those controllers are so expensive, 2D fighting games tend to be murder on controllers.

That genre of games really demands some form of stick. I remember playing MK2 on Genesis with the stock controller and later the 6 button controller and the movement was easy to screw up as moving the thumb and pushing in the right direction was an issue. You really had to take your thumb off the dpad and push a different direction rather than sliding it to the new position.

Some sort of game pad with a thumb stick is definitely the way to go. Now, as to which one, that's a bit harder. I've personally, found the XBox thumb sticks to be quite good, but I suspect that it will suffer the same shortcomings that all other controllers not specifically designed for the genre do. Reduced lifespan and gradual loss of accuracy as you jam it around at break neck speed.

Not sure there are other controllers that are going to handle that much better without going really high end.
IMHO Xpadder is something that people should own anyways as it's far better than any of the utilities I've seen included with any of the joysticks and gamepads I've purchased over the years. Although, I haven't checked out the latest Logitech ones, the ones I had with my last joystick weren't too impressive. Can't recall why ATM.

But, it also handles the various joysticks and game pads I own universally without having to have a half dozen different utilities to handle it.

Mmm... the thing about arcade sticks is that they're digital. This is why d-pads are the next best thing, analogue sticks are awful for things that demand speed and precision in that way. So by all means a gamepad with a digital stick or a good d-pad, but the 360 controller has neither.