This realy deppends on frame of mind I think. As well as your own style of gardening.
Since you've never done hydroponics before, all that I could really do is share my exper.w/ them.

Aeroponic gardening is what your refering to..."fog the roots" so to speak.
Nice growth...but just as equall to well thought-out DWC (Deep Walter culture) in the vegatative stage. Most aeroponic systems are on the noisy(sp?) side of gardening.
However keep in mind any type of gardening that require's a pump will have a certaint amount of this.
Nice but I wasn't interested after afew harvests with it. The noise issue was really starting to become a problem. I had an aeroflo 36. Hold 36 plants, however 18 is the sweet spot.
When you have friends, family, or the unexpected in or around the house, the last thing you want to worry about is the garden making to much noise, or smell, ect.
But this is not the reason why a parted with this machine! I just learned through T&E, that this is not my style of growing! the end result was nice, but not nice enough for me to keep around long.
I tried to convince myself that this is the way to go....or grow Building my own stuff along the way, but the results always came out the same....just not my style!
NFT is nice, but again not for me. At least not in the sence that most use it.
EbbnFlow however gets my thumbs up with hydro, as well as drip systems, from a single open ended, to a ring!
FYI drip systems and NFT are almost the same. How they are applied is what really sepperates(sp?) them. Same pretty much goes for DWC and aeroponics...again to a degree. Other things involved.
I also had a nice 2'x4' ebbnflow tray. This was the perfect match for me. Almost no noise....very little anyway(could manage). Easy to break down in a hurry. Keep things like that in your mind...btw. Clean up was a breeze. Tough as nails growing. Very trust worthy gardening.....reliable. For what ever reason, a pump decides to go you still might be able to save some plants.
Nothing like this has ever happend to me mind you. I've always tried my best to keep on top of everthing.
But do to limited space, like you...
I've scaled down...WAY Down.
from bedroom size to cabinet...2'x2'x6' bloom cab. and donor/cloner cab. that is about 2.5'x2'x2.5.
Very stealthy...in fact we sold our house, with a garden in full swing! People coming in looking at a clean house with nice furniture...yadda yadda yadda.
Family, friends you get the picture.
What I'm trying to get at I guess is...total control over your space!

Tell me the size of your space, and I...we...could recommed what we would do! Include lights blower, ect. Just tell us what were working with?