I have yet to build my first rod and am in the "research" phase. My interest at this point lies in building a 3 weight fly rod, ultimately the Sage TXL, after building a "first rod" to practice on. I read about oversizing the guides, guides made of titanium, chrome, cermet, ceramic, silicon carbide, snake vs. ring, single foot vs. two foot, etc. etc. How does someone with my lack of experience make an intelligent choice among all the variables? I'm not interested in saving money, so that isn't a concern. I enjoy quality and performance more.

Is there some way for someone like myself to compare these variables in an efficient manner BEFORE making a purchase and realizing right away that I should have used "xxxx" instead?

Or, is it going to boil down to it not really going to make that much difference to begin with?