Hey bgray welcome to cann.com, yeah it is overwhelming at first, there's almost too much information about, but don't worry you'll soon get the hang of it.

A 600hps sounds about perfect for a 4x3 box, as for the intake and exhaust either way's good, so long as you which ever place you pick you can run your ducting easily to where you need it to exhaust from. (There's a couple of different ways you can run your ventilation i have mine set up like this, carbon filter---ducting---cooltube hps---ducting-----fan but) Just plan ahead how you wanna do it, you might wanna have the ducting height adjustable so you can move it with the light and suck the hot air right from under the reflector, just depends on your setup.

If you're concerned about $$$ i'd probably say you'd be best to go the soil route, if you go hydro not only is the system gonna cost a few $'s but your gonna need to buy some other stuff too like ph meters and ph adjusters, growing in soil is probably a little easier for the beginner too, problems in hydro can happen quickly wheras soil is more forgiving.

Good luck!
hudson88 Reviewed by hudson88 on . HELP!! With a small grow box So I about as new as it gets to this growing thing, and I have to say its quite overwhelming, now i see why everyone isn't doing it. So I plan on growing the minimum which I found is usualy around 4 plants to increase the chances of a female. I would like to build my own box. Other than the box it self(wood, screws,some coating for the inside... all that) I plan on getting 1 600W HPS light w/ at least 45,000 lumens. I would like to use a hydro growing technique but it seems like its more costly Rating: 5