Cable modem recommendations?

I as thinking of buying a cable modem and saving the extra $10 a month
it costs to rent it from the cable company. Any recommendations on what
brand and model to get? I realize they all work about the same, but are
some noted for a bit higher performance, more reliabiity, more stability?
Do models that have both network card and USB connections (I would use a
network card, of course) have any sort of performance penalties for having
both kinds of connections? DOCSIS 1.1 compatibility is the one standard I
know of that the modem must support, are there any others?

Also, I've seen some models of modem referred to as digital, how would
that differ from an analog cable modem?

Don't know much about cable modems, since I've had the same one ever since
I got my cable internet connection over 3 years ago. And it always works,
so there was never any need to look at other models and how they compare
before.

Thanks for any info., guys.