Overwhelmed w/Sprint touch pro, advice from the pros needed =)

[protomind]

I am very familiar with modding and hacking most things, but I am totally overwhelmed and do not know what route to go with flashing my phone with a custom ROM. Ok, I have read the threads about actually unlocking and doing the flashing . . . . . that is no problem and I understand that pretty well. What I do not understand however is things like these.

Should I upgrade my radio and if so which one for a sprint touch pro? Is there anything carrier specific I should be looking for in a ROM? Do I have to add any packages to make a ROM like mightymikes compatible with sprint features?

What is your personal recommendation for a sprint rom that is well featured?

I am asking because I have read alot of threads here, but just to read all of them would take forever since the mightymike thread is 375 pages long. Unfortunately I do not have 40 plus hours this week to put into doing the research and this is why I am asking for some help from some of the pros here. My phone has nothing programmed into it, I opened it up this morning and have not done anything except turn it on. No data to back up . . . where do I go next? Should I update the radio then do the ROM update?

I am looking for alot of features and a fast ROM like everybody I guess. Battery life is important to me too. A big thing for me is getting away from the windows mobil interface as much as possible so any suggestions towards this end are appreciated.