Speaker Conundrum

[Trean]

Over the past year I have been redoing my home theater setup. I live in a studio apartment so I went with a Viewsonic VX2435wm 24" monitor that serves multi-purpose of TV, Media, and Computer. In addition I owned a HTiB w/ 5.1 setup.

A couple months back (might be more, I lose track) I purchased an Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver. I am now ready to move past my HTiB 5.1 speakers and purchase some new ones. I know they can be hefty in price so I plan on purchasing them piecemeal. I am on a modest budget but when stretched over time it can certainly accomplish quite a bit, but I want to know what to keep an eye on so I can watch for deals and pounce when I have the money available.


My questions:
1) Which speakers should I go with?
I have heard a lot or read a lot about Polk speakers, but I still don't know which would be best for me. I have looked into the R50's for front side speakers but don't know if those would fit with my receiver. I don't know about power usage/consumption and which speakers my receiver will be able to drive or not. Oh and when I was looking into the R50's I came across this picture: Connection Question!? What am I suppose to plug into those? There seems to room for two wires, are both needed? What do both do... and how do I go from one left/right out on the receiver to two left/right in's on the speaker.

2) Which order should I purchase in? I was thinking center, sides, surrounds, sub. I will be mixing the new speakers with my HTiB speakers and sub while the conversion is incomplete.

3) I was thinking 14 AWG wiring and banana plugs; I already own the banana plugs. Sound good?