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My current 450 recommended setup

I have setup a number of 450's over the past few years (since 2008) for myself and my students and here is the current recommended setup I have that I think works pretty well for a reasonable cost.  


Heli : One of the 450 EXI helis from Xheli
Note: I recommend a belt heli for beginners because they are more crash tolerant. The Torque tube helis have more parts to change when there is a crash and something typically gets shredded in the tail gears during a crash.
The Pro head is more stable, the lengths are longer on the mixing arms to reduce the effect of slop in the head. Plus the width of the head is longer thus making the rotor disk bigger which aides in stability. Only the Pro has this head, the other models will have a normal type head.
I advise against the cheaper plastic heli. The Sport edition is probably easier to mount the electronics in and service though.  If you go with the sport version, you can still use 335mm Pro3d Blades if you want.

Motor : Alpha 400
ESC : Volcano/Proton 30A
Cyclic Servos* : Solar Servo D650 (Best), Solar Servo A107 (Minimal), EXI D113F (good)  or  EXI digital 213F 9g (Better)
Gyro** : Detrum GY48V 
Tail servo :
         Mini Tail servo from Value Hobby
         Solar Servo D658 from Xheli or Hobbypartz
         if you make your own adaptor bracket, you can also use a micro servo like the JR 290G

Radio : Better ->Spektrum 6 or 7 channel radio from Amain Hobbies

I recommend the 6110 or 6110e Rx for the 450 size helicopter
AR 6200 is better but not necessary.

href="http://www.xheli.com/exceed-rc-6-ch-2-4ghz-transmitter-receiver.html">T6 radio from Xheli -> Instructions here

Batteries:
HobbyPartz has a good selection of 2200mAh 3S 20C, 25C and 30C batteries.
          Gens Ace is the best battery but for the beginner, Blue lipo is a better value or Sky Lipo.
You can also find some of the above parts sometimes less at HobbyPartz

Charger:
AC6


* A note about cyclic servos. Although the servos I recommend are very good "bang for the buck" you can also consider spending more $$ on some Hitec 5065mg servos if you want much more performance

** A note about the gyro. While an inexpensive gyro like the GY48V performs very well in holding the tail for it's price, if you want MUCH better tail holding, less drift and much better 3D performance, I recommend a more expensive gyro like the Quark, Futaba GY520, Futaba GY401 or Logitech/Hitec combo pack. Sometimes you can find GY401 gyros used or Align GP750 gyros for less which are parted out of kits and shold on ebay or helicopter forums. Put $$ into your gyro and tail servo before upgrading to better cyclic servos. Do not underestimate the value of a good fast tail servo though, the Better gyros won't help if you have an inexpensive Tail servo on it. The JR290G servo I list does really well with both inexpensive as well as better gyros. If you need to start on a budget and want bang for the buck, I'd say get the JR290G tail servo and the GY48v then later upgrade your gyro when you can.

Some general advise is that you have a multitude of other better motors and ESC's that you can get. What is described above is a pretty decent flying 450 helicopter at a reasonable price. Enough to keep the first time CP or first time Electric flyer going strong for months before feeling you need to immediatly upgrade.

You will still need tools as outlined in the Blueray setup page

If you think you are not up to the task of building your own Heli, you should consider the following other choices.
(each require you to get your own charger). Also realize that often you line up a list of parts to order then you need more stuff later. Buying the RTF versions and Rx ready versions have things already built up and you just need to do some additional setup to them and get into the air quickly without having to wait for more items to fly.

Blueray PE RTF
Blueray PE Rx ready (get the Dx6i or another Radio with this or just add another Rx to your existing CCPM ready Tx)

Note: On the Rx ready version, unless it is on sale, your almost always better off getting the RTF version for $30 more so that you can get into the air quickly, then upgrade the Tx later.