I would not worry that much about stats on lower levels , if you know or are a tailor some of the gear they can make is well worth getting as i have found out , but there are some nice quest items around as well so no need to spend loads of gold in the auction house.
I went the spell power route with my mages using whatever had better SP and taking whatever secondary stat like intellect and spirit the items had , i did spend gold at the auction house but that was because i have more than i need even at low level.