L2T-
I know the cost of gear adds up very quickly. There is no doubt that most of us will recommend what seems reasonable, we are all out to enjoy the hobby and promote pattern flying. There is a reason that you won't see the less expensive brands recommended. Let me tell you about my early experience:

I started out with glow and got into pattern early. It was not long before I was looking for a decent plane with good performance. I found myself with a glow engine and a fuel pump, or a glow engine with a pressurized fuel system. Both gave me incredible performance, but both gave me lots of down time and dead sticks. It really took away from my flying time and learning.

It was suggested to me to try electric, so I could focus on flying and not engines and tuning. So I did just that, and tried to save some money with a less expensive brand motor. I read that the motor worked well for some guys with the ssame plane so I went for it. It was not long before the motor spit magnets, and again I was suffering down time and not flying my plane. I waited a long time for the motor to get fixed under warranty. I actually got a replacement motor, seemed to work OK but made funny noises, so again I'm wondering if the motor is working right and not concentrating on flying (eventually this was all resolved, changes were made to the motor design and things worked out, but it cost a lot of time, aggravation, and some extra money).

Had I spent a little more money up front and went with the factory recommended power setup, I know now that I would have had many more hours of flying and a lot less headaches. I have learned that trying to cut corners generally bites me in the behind. I have grown so sick and tired of trying to make something into what it isn't as it ends up costing so much money and time.

The reason the 'good stuff' costs more money is because it generally has better quality control and better customer support. The chances are a lot less likely something will go wrong, but if it does, you can rest assured the problem will be taken care of quickly. Having a reliable system that you don't have to worry about power and can just focus on flying the airplane, is PRICELESS.

Here is another example of a similar situation where someone (with the monolog 70 nonetheless) is struggling due to cutting corners on motor selection:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/elec...-let-down.html