What's better for smoking meats: a tower smoker, or a side by side barrel smoker?

I don't mind having to tinker with it to keep the right temp, etc, in fact I think that those automated pellet smoker are sacrilegious. I have a small tower smoker (if that's the right name for it), it's an upright cylinder with the fire box and water pan at the bottom. I'd like to upgrade, but have never used a side by side barrel smoker. I mostly do ribs and chicken but would like to upsize so I can do pork shoulders and briskets and, of course, more and more ribs!!!