I'm in the planning stages of my first wheel build. I've got the hubs picked out and ordered, but I'm sinking in a sea of information trying to decide on a set of rims. I've done a lot of searches, but at this point I feel like I've got too much data and not enough understanding. I'm hoping someone can help me out.

The wheels are for my Marin Muirwoods 29er. I use it primarily for rainy weather commuting, but I'll also be doing some off-road stuff with it in the summer. I'd like to stay under $100 for two rims, but I can probably go as high as $200 if I have a really good reason to do so.

I'm not even sure what I should be looking for in a rim. I want something that accelerates well. I think that means I want something stiff and light, right? Light is easy to see (though most of the rims I'm considering are around the same weight), but how do I know which rim will be stiff? The pavement on my commute is pretty good, and I won't be riding over anything bigger than a street curb or a small log, which given my skills means that if I'm lucky I clear it with my front wheel and the rear wheel hits it squarely, maybe with my weight forward, so a certain amount of strength is necessary but I don't think it's the top priority.

I think I've read that welded rims are better than pinned, but it seems like maybe either is fine for my purposes. I think I've read that eyelets are desirable for attaining high spoke tension.

My hubs are built for 32 spokes. The widest tires the bike can handle are 29x2.1. I've got 700x50's on it now and intend to stay with that, but I can imagine wanting to go as narrow as 32 some time. All the information I can find correlating rim width to min/max tire size specifies interior width, but most of the information I can find on available rims specifies exterior width only.

All of these rims seem to be more or less within my criteria.

Salsa Delgado Cross
Salsa Semi 29er
Mavic A317
Velocity Blunt
Sun Equalizer (21/23/27??)
DT Swiss X470
WTB Dual Duty XC
WTB SpeedDisc

How should I go about picking one? Any others that I should consider?