Well, as far as favorite stuff goes, I love Castle Creations. I have a few of their receivers and if the ESCs are the same quality, then I'm all good.

I think that for inexpensive motors, the Rimfires are decent, I haven't heard anything actively negative about them. Though usually whenever someone says something good about them it's preceded by "For the price..." I'd probably be better off spending the extra $20 on an AXI though.

On the other hand, I know for a fact that the Electrifly non-balanced packs are junk, and I'm getting the impression that their balanced packs are acceptable, but nowhere near great. I probably oughta just get some Thunder Power and spend an extra $20 on a good battery.

So I guess that leaves me with increasing my budget by $40.

Oh yeah, and is it just me or does it seem like E-flite is taking advantage of people with their batteries? They are barely less expensive than Thunder Power, and have a discharge rating of only 6c continuous.