best none canon flash for beginner?

I went back and forth for the past week on what to buy (you can find my recent posts on this board on the subject). I kept flopping back and forth between the YN-460ii and the YN-560. I finally decided to just go with the YN-560. It's only $15 more and I think it's improvements over the YN-460ii are worth that much. You can get one on Amazon right now for $61! I also plan to get some Cactus V5s to trigger it OC.

for a beginner I would go with a ettl model. The only problem with the YN are they are over rated on their GN. They do not put out as much power as they claim. I would go with the yn468 with the ttl if you went that route.

If you want a bit better build and a higher grade flash, the nissin di622 if you still can find the MKI, they are pretty cheap. And are excellent flash units. The DI622 MKII is about the price of the 430exII but more power.

Another good option in the price range of the 430exII is the metz 50 AF-1.