Aero or Buckets 1st hydro

I'm moving in from soil and sun and trying something new for my first time. I've decided to keep my room fairly small and hopefully keep my lighting to 2-600w cooled hps. I'd pretty much decided on the buckets but have seen several people having success with aeroflo grows and thought maybe some of you who have experience with one or both of these could give me your opinions... I'm liking the idea of a lot of smaller plants - shorter veg, even lighting, ect. I'm just not sure if these smaller plants yield could even compare to the big bushes that could be grown in the buckets. Ido be willing to move up to 2-1000w lightsor even 3-600w, just don't want to go any higher than that on electric $$$. I attached pics of the two type systems I was thinking of, if I go buckets I'll probably do the 8 bucket setup though. Thanks for your input!

Also I was thinking of going with Bomb seeds THC Bomb in the buckets (I liked the way they looked outdoor) but since cold weather is coming (easier to keep my room cool) I may go with a purp of some sort. If I go with the aero can I still use the same strains or would it be better to go with something like an auto?

you may want to consider trying coco for your first hydro attempt.