Hydroponic Guidance Needed! Which is better?

[rhizome]

i would plop the buckets on a shelf and let gravity to the work and just drain back into the res. then drip feed the buckets.

The advantage that these systems share is minimal height- in order to gravity return, the bottom of the grow container must be lower than the top of the res- bucket+res is gonna be an easy 24" vertical, which is more valuable to some than others.

I gravity return whenever possible, as it's idiot-proof- and I have been that idiot. But if it's not practical, these are a fine way to go.