Saitek X-52 or Thrustmaster Cougar?

[dane48]

Fellows, I've had a minimal joystick for years and cannot afford the new Warthog setup coming out. I know I'll get a mixture of responses here, but I am looking to purchase either the Saitek X-52 or the Thrustmaster. I do see that the Saitek is considerably cheaper and tend to go with that. I have the Saitek flight yoke and throttle quadrant so I am happy with their product. Seems I can get a new X-52 for about $85.00 (USD) or spend just about $200 for the other? YOur thoughts? THank you

[kylania]

I loves me some X52. It's been a real solid product that has served me well. I have larger hands and the X-52 just fits me perfectly.

 

Personally I didn't like the Cougar, but then again I've never really flown F-16 sims and I just didn't like the style of it.

 

If you're going to play DCS: A-10C exclusively I'd say just spring for the Warthog actually. Yeah it's crazy expensive, but it's sexy and "just works". No fiddling with config and trying to remember what button was for what switch.

 

Probably a more sensible approach would be buying the X-52. You might even look at the X-52 Pro. Better quality then the base X-52 and slightly less than the Cougar I think.

[Griffin]

I'm going to make it a tad more difficult and say CH Fighterstick + CH Pro Throttle, providing you already have rudder pedals. You need pedals with Cougar too.

According to people, Cougar is feels solid but will go bad in a while and needs to be modded to become a good stick. The mods cost as much as the stick itself.

Saitek. Lot's of people use it but quality wise, paying a little more for CH setup will benefit much more. I just ordered CH Fighterstick to accompany the CH Pro Throttle that I already have. You won't find any other HOTAS that has been so praised in reviews as CH HOTAS. It looks ugly but it trades the useless eye candy for quality. You might get a Saitek system that will last and serve you well but reading the reviews and having a little experience of my own, I'm all for CH.

 

CH Fighterstick & Pro Throttle bundle - 276.74 $.

 

PS. CH Fighterstick is almost identical to A-10C stick so it will be easy to program realistically.

 

And which stick do you have at the moment?

Edited October 24, 2010 by Griffin

[galagamo]

I've had my X52 for about a year and a half, It's still kickin.

A few critiques though, the rotary's are all but useless, The stick is a bit on the loose side 'but there's an easy fix for that' the programing software is a bit overwhelming at first, but really adds to the overall flexibility .

I'd say it's worth a $10x$10

Never used a TM though, so I have no basis for comparison.

[MadDogMcQ]

Dane, only consider the opinions of those people who've owned BOTH setups - otherwise, it's an unbalanced view, isn't it?

 

I've owned both and I can say that I did a hell of a lot more flying with the X52 than I did with the Cougar. I found the Cougar to be pain in the ass to setup and there were a lot of "spikes". Owners spent a great deal of money upgrading their equipment to get it to work properly. The X52 PRO on the other hand, has worked flawlessly from the box and was amazingly cheap to purchase.

 

I have ordered the new TM WartHog HOTAS and will be selling my X52PRO, because the new TM is what the old Cougar should have been! If you're on a budget, go for the Saitek X52 PRO every time.

 

Tom.

[Frogfoot1606687865]

Well just to shake things up I will add my personal opinion. I have had the X52 Pro for a year now, and to be honest I wouldn't buy another one. The Second stage on the trigger has stopped working and the throttle response and the small slider on the throttle are very spiky. I get quite a few BSOD crashes which can be traced back to the Saitek drivers (quite a few reports of this on the net). Yes they are cheap, but in my personal opinion are a great product let down by poor quality control and shoddy drivers/software.

 

I am going to spring for a HOTAS Warthog if user reviews are favorable on a few months time.

Cheers

Tom

[MadDogMcQ]

Just to respond to Griffin's comments, yes, the CH stuff is good too - in fact, I used a CH FlightStick Pro for years and it was fantastic. Their full-spec hotas stuff though, is a tad expensive.

 

I've had Saiteks for years too (X36, X45) and the early ones could be a pain in the ass due to their weak software, but since the X52 came along, they've been wonderful. And the quality of their hardware has never been in doubt (for the price).

[SmokeyTheLung]

As MadDog points out; my opinion is all but useless because I haven't owned both products. But I will say that the x-52 pro is quite usable in both DCS games, and every other flying game I've tried.

I'm sure the purists will disagree but I would say go with the x-52.

Just don't expect a perfect HOTAS setup...

[Griffin]

are very spiky.

 

I got spiky twisty rudder right out of the box. Took the thing back and picked up the CH Pro Throttle to go with my old trusty Logitech Freedom joystick. The combo has worked well and you could consider using that kind of combo for a month or two and then get the Fighterstick as soon as you can afford it if you really are short on money.

[Steel Jaw]

I have the Cougar and the x52 Pro.

 

You get what you pay for.

 

Go with the Thrustmaster if you're serious.

[MadDogMcQ]

Personally, I don't see the point in buying a Cougar Hotas right now. What are they? £180?? And then you've still got a product that needs money throwing at it. I'd rather spend a little on a mint secondhand X52PRO and start saving up to buy the TM Warthog when funds permit.

 

As soon as my Warthog arrives (should be end of Oct according to Amazon), then I'll be selling my X52PRO for £50. An absolute bargain!!

 

Edited October 24, 2010 by MadDogMcQ

[Tronjer]

X52 has a pretty good price-performance-ratio. Using mine for two years now and will stick with it, until I can afford something like the Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS.

[dane48]

Lots of great suggestions and comments fellows. I appreciate it. I'll keep thinking and saving. Perhpas I'll hook up my Saitek throttle quadrant and use that for the throttle, but that doesn't seem very realistic to me. I am using some of those switches now for my gear, and air brakes. It's going to be a long time before the Warthog Hotas will come down by 25% or more in price. I'm not a patient man so and not getting younger, so will have to make a move long before that. Thank you

[Moby]

I've had the X 52 pro and loved it, was convinced to buy the Cougar and at first it was awesome! But poor quality parts made it crap in about 2 years or less. Now I have the CH Fighter Stick, Pro Thottle, and Peddals. Its good, you must get into the programing stuff but you can program the crap out it! If you're like me, I hate the programing stuff so I just get profiles from folks like Rugbutt and Crunch. You'll have a long lasting stick but it still feels like a toy. My understanding is thrustmaster is fixing the problems with their Warthog stick...I wait for reviews after 6 months to see if they have. One of my squad mates Jojo has had almost every damn stick made (ok, well a lot of them) and he swears by the X65F. He did tell me that it took some gettign used to as the stickj doesn't move. He mentioned you must bee tuned into to trimming your aircraft. But he also said he didn't think he'd fly other stick again. But....it's Jojo, he''s got five sticks, so we'll see. I also have a squad mate, Machingun that likes the Logitech G940. I've not flown that one but love the force feed back idea. I have a lot of Logitech gear and it all works perfectly!!! One thing I will probably get back to is all metal construction. If CH would just do that they'd be the perfect stick.

[badaboom]

I have The X-52,I've had it for about 3 yrs,It's a great,capable stick for the price.The Saitek software is useless and causes my system to crash,other than that I'm pretty happy w/t it.It does a good job on programability in DCS BS/A-10C,but...........The TM WartHog would be "The Bomb" for the A-10C.

 

I'm on the fence and I'm going to wait till the New YR to see reviews and quality reports.