[CentOS] Compile vs. RPM

Hello CentOS,

I'm an old hat, and have been compiling my own MySQL, Apache, PHP, OpenSSL, ModSSL, etc. for my webservers for years. I'm playing around with the RPM installs on CentOS, and have basically been able to get most things setup so that they "function" about the same.

If I could stick to RPM's rather than compiling my own sources, it would save me a fair bit of time, but of course, it would limit the customization benefit. what I'm wondering, is if anyone on this list has any good reasons why one method would be better, more secure, etc than the other. I'm tempted to start using RPM's instead of compile sources.

Comments appreciated, thanks.