Best way to sync iPhones contacts and Outlook?

Apple products in all there glory are great but I am a PC man for reason I am not going to get in to. I do however like my iPhone but am struggling with marrying my contacts with it to my Outlooks contacts. Every time I plug my iPhone into my PC iTunes auto syncs my contacts (I since disabled that). Also, I am not sure the difference between Windows contacts and Outlook. MY IPHONE HAS SOMETIMES 3,4 OR EVEN 5 DUPLICATES IN THE CONTACTS! All I really want is to have my Outlooks contacts to show the same on my iPhone and vice versa. I am also looking for the easiest way to edit them. And then after they are edited and sync’d with my iPhone it will replace not add another duplicate. What is the easiest way to do this?