From my experience, dropping the pan is the best way to check. Yes I agree, end play will not necessarily be present (in severe cases it indeed happens, it did on several occasions for me) but what will be even more obvious than the end play is all the metal shavings found in the bottom of the oil pan itself. Dropping the oil pan is not hard at all, even for a mere newbie.

 

You would immediately know if you had rod knock as its extremely loud. There is no way it could be mistaken as "normal engine noise".

Here is video of a 2g DSM with rod knock...

 

^^Yea it really sounds nothing like that, thats for all of the reassurance guys! I think i'm ok for now!