every motor and lipo i have ever had came from hobbypartz even my 2.4ghz radios and servos all work great im like you im on a budget in a way when it comes to esc i use castle creations products but as far as motors the tacon will run with the top brands my tacon 2950kv in my 2wd slash is about 2 years old i run it on 3s and 4s still runs the same as the day i got it my emaxx has a tacon 4074 2150kv i run on 5s i paid 50.00 for that motor and it runs toe to toe with the mamba monster motors if you can afford the highend stuff go for it but if your like me i dont race just bash with friends the cheap systems will do