I am building my second real set-up which consists of about 18 sq. ft. I have been reading a lot about how to grow well, and the key is oxygen to the roots (assuming you have all the basics correct). It doesn't matter what method you use. Many methods produce similar results if you do things properly. Make sure your nutes, temps, ventalation, and CO2 (if you're wealthy) are correct. If you are a begginer this will be a big enough task for you.
If you want to increase your yeild and move to a more advanced level, start thinking about what ways would be best for you and your situation, in order to deliver as much oxygen as possible to your root mass. For me, I have to consider that I live at the "end of the line", according to my electric company, and have a lot of power outages. I want to have my roots in plain old circulating air as much as possible without the plants getting stressed. But if the power is out for 12 hours, my plants may die with no liquid flowing over the roots. Therefore my new set-up has adjustable nute levels under individual containers, to allow air to be pumped over the roots continuously, with just maybe an inch or so of roots in the nutes in case the power does go out. I also have a sort of drip/ebb&flow system on a timer. I guess I am building a hybrid system. I have not seen or read about anything exactly like it.
Other than the fun of building the project, it doesn't really matter how you supply the proper chemicals to plants. You will thank yourself later if you keep it simple. My first real grow was an "Emily's Garden" (sp.?). It is a sort of DWC system and it was very simple and produced fantastic results. I altered it slightly to deliver bubbles under each root mass, but other than that it was plug and play. I don't remember what I was growing, but the leaves were bigger than my head, and I'm not small.
The best thing I can tell you is read up. What the hell happened to Overgrow. com? This was my favorite place in the world for info. Find another place to exchange information, find out what other people have done and pick and choose from their experiences to do what you think will work best for you. No wait, the best thing I can tell you is do not, under any circumstance, scrimp on the lighting or and the ventalation. Trust me you will be sorry. If you don't have much money, make a home-made Emily's Garden and spend your money on fans, ducts, and lights. No wait, the best thing that I can tell you, and this really is the best advice you will ever recieve, NEVER, ever, ever bring home a plant that has spider mites on it. (Look for groups of little white spots on the leaves). Read up on this if you don't know about it.
Hope this helps a little.
PS. I would be interested in input on my hybrid set-up.
don't take it personal. He's a pretty wise o bird. A good one to pay attention to. 
