I prefer them over dual-shock clones because I have monster mitts.
Ah, my hands are above average and I can use a DS just fine thankfully.
I can't wait for the Reicast core in Retroarch to get ironed out, SOUL CALIBUR TIME!
THE BEST METHOD to run PSX games (and everything else for that matter) is via Retroarch - http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/
If you have any questions on how to set it up on Windows please feel free to ask, its very easy.