Which box to buy?

Hello there all,

I'm relatively new to flashing nokias or phones in general and am trying to immerese myself deeper in the subject. I've gotten myself flash and data cables for the nokia dct3 adn dct4 series (cheap ones, nothing fancy). Now I've seen adverts for all sorts of boxes, such as Universal box 4, Prodigy, Tornado and clones of all of these. Whats the advantage of these boxes of plain cables and which one would you recommend for use on both dct3 and modern dct4 nokias, as well as other makes such as SE an so on and so forth. How much would I have to spend on one of these boxes???

Thanks in advance for your help...

Paul