Ok, I've spent untold hours over the last couple of weeks reading about groupsets and I'm less decided than ever. I can see it has been discussed ad nausium so I'm sorry to add yet another thread on the subject, but my head is spinning here. Need some clarity. Halp

The story so far; I have a Frameset; a 1996 Litespeed Vortex (Ti), Chris King headset, Columbus minimal forks. The rest is yet to be decided. Right now it's the groupset that's doing my head in.

Originally I was considering Centaur Carbon; I really like the feel, the lever action, the looks and the spec. That's the price point I'm looking at. But man, there's so much negativity about PowerTorque, including the need for lame expensive tools, creaks, and poor reliability... not so cool.

So, now I'm wondering if I can mix parts. I'd really like to go with Centaur shifters. The question is, what other cranksets would be compatible? Also, I really want 165mm cranks.

I spy a SRAM Red Exogram GXP crankset at a comparable price to Centaur carbon – great looking piece of kit. However, it says it only works with the highly expensive Yaw front dérailleur, and no doubt that'll say it only works with even more expensive SRAM shifters. A little more research reveals that GXP BBs suck, but there are GXP converters for Chris King and Phil Wood BBs (expensive but an investment).

So, I guess the question is, can I or can I not mix parts? eg.
1. Centaur Shifters + SRAM Red Exogram crankset + Centaur rest of drive-chain + dérailleurs
2. Centaur Shifters + SRAM Red Exogram crankset + SRAM Force rest of drive-chain
3. Some other mix not featuring PowerTorque, eg. a Dura Ace 7800 Crankset +...

Or, if this is likely to be a world of shifting pain?

Regarding other groupsets, I've test ridden SRAM Force and just didn't get on with the lever action. Ultegra... at the price point the spec doesn't match Centaur and I don't much dig the look or feel. But if it's less hassle then perhaps...

I have read Lennard Zinn's 2008 blog post about running a SRAM drive-chain with Centaur Shifters, but then I don't know if what he found still applies, what with all the technological 'progress' of the last 5 years. I've also read lots of forum posts contesting his findings, so doubly unsure.

Eeeee, I dunno! Over to you; what's ideal?