Chris,

The phoenix 60 from Castle Creations is a real piece of work. It's a BEC integrated, but you can't use it with the trex 500, so you'd need a external BEC to power your system.

I've used the Align ESC without problems for more than 20 flights with my trex, but I've heard also about that recommendation you said, and know people with have had plenty of issues (receiver reset, lost of signal during flight and other nasty situations).

Hope this helps!
Toni