[daedal]

Your right no one can truly answer that because there is always two trains of thought, that subdomains get less search engine loving, or subdomains are treated the same.

Personally I do much better with domains, but subdomains do work as well for me, but generally I find if the sub domain is totally a different subject than the main does it work.

Other people have different experiences. I know that spending extra for the domains works for me.