Hi All,
Varies for me based on what I need/want/aim to do.
Fixed weaposn that track ahead of the target such as cannon with gimbals work well together. Gimbals on the lower hardponits, cannons above means you follow the ship upwards tracking ahead placing the target in the arc of the limited traversal lower hardpoints. This worked well for me on Cobra and Viper in Beta and Gamma, allowing me to take a range of opponents on.
I recently purchased a Cobra, but I have spent Gamma mostly in an Adder. I liked it a lot, spent most of the time with gimbaled Multi-cannon and Gimbaled Pulse. Bounty Hunting was anything up to Cobra, I left bigger fish (I mean snakes) alone. I did use 2 x cannon and 1 x gimbaled beam to complete a "kill adminral x" mission. The MCG/Laser combo made me a little direct without a lot of punch. The Feds kept turning up and I kept accidentally shooting one of them. To kill the bigger ship I used Fixed laser and Cannon. Better firepower, but I had to be in close and the adder is not the greatest turner.
From a fighter point of view, you feel the loss of damage with gimbals when your target is large, but up to Cobra, where ships dart around Gimbals give you a better hit percentage, and at least for me kill the opponent slightly quicker.
Simon