I am looking for info and advice for building my stampede. Comming off of the throttle servo it attaches to a disk-like contact that has several wires coming out of it. One goes to the receiver, two to the battery, and then several to what looks like a ceramic load. I am just trying to figure out what this disk is and if it could cause slow response to the radio.

turns out what i am looking at is the MSC. What ESC would you recommend me upgrading to.. I am looking for something fairly cheap.

If you want a cheap / strong / reliable ESC you can look at the castle lineup. There are many options though depending on how much you want to invest.

Is this a 4x4 stampede or 2wd? This will make a huge difference in what you should pick out for a motor / esc combo.

This PEDE is a 2x4, I am running a monster 550 that I just put in and it seems to run pretty well with the MSC that I am currently running. I am also running 6 cell 3000mah nimh battery. Is there a good place for cheap parts that you would recommend?