We're doing a basement reno as well. We played with the idea of leaving it raw, doing another drop ceiling, drywalling it... We've decided because we have soooo many wires running all over the place and ducting visible in the joists we're going to go with another drop ceiling. Even though we're going with another drop ceiling, we're sending a few extra dollars and upgrading the style of drop ceiling by going with an Embassy Ceiling (http://embassyceiling.com/) it's more like a boxed out look and doesn't require to much clearance! It will cover everything up, multiple colors to choose from, and allows access to all services above if ever needed. We've decided on white and we found that we can order online at Costco and just add the missing extra items we need from a box store!
Q