Personally, I find the gearing
in all of the gear-driven wheels to be too high. This high gearing
allows the wheel to generate lots of force, but it damps out the
small details that are evident with the best force feedback wheels,
and it's these small details that make driving GPL with force
feedback to be such a joy.
I strongly prefer the legendary, lamented steel-cable-driven Logitech
Wingman Formula Force wheel ($80-100 on eBay). It's the one with the red rim (not
yellow, and not the gear-driven Formula Force GP).
Known fondly as "Old Red", the best were the later ones,
made in China; these generate more force than the earlier Made
in Taiwan version.
I've upgraded my Old Red with ball bearings from Jens Schumacher. Although the ball bearing
conversion is not cheap, and requires a fair amount of effort,
it's worth it. A ball bearing equipped Old Red provides amazingly
detailed and realistic-feeling forces in GPL.
After the Old Red was discontinued, Logitech built its first gear-driven
FF wheel, called the Logitech Wingman Formula Force GP.
This model was cheaper than the original Wingman Formula Force
model, but it requires a USB port, while the original Old Red
will work with either a USB or serial port. Unfortunately it suffers
from all the gear-driven ills that I didn't like in the Microsoft
wheel.
I feel the older, non-GP, steel-cable-driven Old Red is much nicer
than any of the gear-driven Logitechs, so if you can still find
one (try eBay),
grab it.
See my other comments about Force Feedback wheels in the Survival Guide and on my Force Feedback page. Get more information about Logitech wheels on my Logitech page.