My suggestion... please take with grain of salt....

The radio you are looking at (9C FM) is most likely going to last you through many heli's (if you stay with the hobby) If you dont stay in the hobby you will have a piece that will have good resale value. what was it 450 about??

I recommend the GY401 gyro (list 300bucks) as a previous post mentioned 200 bucks from heli hut.. I have 3 of 'em... 1 is from Heli Hut, no problems there. also I have 2 GY601 gyros (you dont need this!!) The Futaba GY401 includes the $110+ high end servo. This gyro will help you learn faster with the tail locked in. You can set it to normal mode and learn the tail (make many corrections) Wish I had it when I was learning!! If you are scraping pennys, I have a CSM 360 I bought 2.5 years ago when they were the ____. If your interested, it yours for 100 bucks. (still need decent servo!) there is a pic of it in a reply in the Heli WTB section.

suggestion,
9C FM, or even drop to the 8ch... $450 + frt
GY401 with servo 9253 .............. $200 + frt

If you want any more details, send me a e-mail or PM

Good Luck
Jeff