I highly recommend beginning hydro growers, at least with their first grow, start with a simple DWC. You can't beat it for ease of operation and fantastic results. Look at Emily's Garden in a search engine. You can buy one for like $85 or build one for like $35. That's how I started and I am using them right now in a temporary grow. (http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-gr...-training.html)

If you want to jump to the advanced stage and want as high yields as possible, then search FFT (Fog Feed Technique).

Anything you can buy preassembled you can make for about half the cost usually. I like to build for fun and to make everything exactly the way I want it, but that takes time.