Hyperion or Thunder Power?
 

I'm buying new lipos and I'm kinda torn between Hyperion g3 vx and Thunder Power 45c. Any thoughts?

Well at this point I would not buy a Hyperion battery pack because I think they are approaching their new 'G4' lipo packs release. I LOVE Hyperion packs, they are fairly priced, very well built, and top tier quality control packs on the market, I have a 6s 4200mah G3 vx (35c) packs from 2009 that still work flawlessly, still have crazy punch, but have lost about 15% capacity, only because I never stored them at the proper voltage for the first couple years. I also have some 6s 2200mah EX 45c packs that simply knock the crap out of my truck, so light, yet soo powerful, these packs are only a year old now, but are actually getting stronger every time I use them still, and have lost 0% capacity since I store them properly and treat them right.

I recently bought a TP 6s 3850 45C G6 pack that was on clearance sale at RCToys.com, but I found the pack IR was very high and did not perform very well, my small 2200mah HP packs outperformed them, and ran cooler. So I sent them in for warranty, the guy did a few tests on them and said it looked normal, but when doing further testing he 'apparently' walked away from a CBA discharging test he was doing on it and drained the pack all the way down to nothing... so in the end I am getting a new G8 pack free of charge. That was shipped about a week ago but I haven't received it yet so I can't comment on it's performance. Thunderpower also has the best warranty in the industry, with a full 2 year warranty and 50% off damaged battery replacement program coverage. You pay a bit of a premium for the warranty though, I say it's worth every penny.

I also have another G6 pack that I bought at the same clearance sale, a 4s 45C 6600mah pack. The performance on this thing was top notch, total pack IR after only a few cycles was already down at 2mOhm, which is insane. The pack doesn't even get warm when used at all, super punchy, and super cool running.

You can try RCToys.com and check the clearance sale for a battery size you are looking for, there isn't much left but you might get lucky. Thunderpower has some killer 'Pro-Lite' packs that are 25C rated, but have a significant capacity advantage over an equal weight pack, or for the same capacity, they weight about 20% less. They don't have quite the punch as a 45C pack, but if you are racing, Pro-Lite's might be your ticket to victory.

So it's up to you what you want to do. You can't go wrong with either, as they are the top 2 best packs you can buy.

They're a horse a piece. I'm just a ground basher. I don't race and I don't fly. Zippy and turnigy have been fine for me. They've provided more power and more speed than I can handle. I can't imagine wanting more.

Ive only ran turnigy and they perform to my liking, but im just tired of performing surgery on them right out of the box. I suck at soldering.

Not so much the power that is the main benefit, although there is plenty and then some with Thunderpower packs, but I have never had another battery that has been so well matched in terms of cell IR and capacity... even when discharged down to 3.3v/cell, the voltage gap is around ~0.020 on a 4s 6600 45c pack I have. This is another reasons why thunderpower packs can be cycled for hundreds of times, user 'everydayflyer' at rcgroups forum has tested packs for years, manufacturers sending him packs for testing, he did extended cycling on a G4 45C pack back in 2010 to IIRC 300+ cycles almost, and the pack had lost only ~5% capacity. The more impressive part of this test was that it was a 18C discharge (3 minute discharges) and 5C charging. One complete cycle every 20 minutes.

To me, these packs are simply a bargain if you look at them in real terms of cycle life and cost over life time. Any turnigy pack will simply not give you this, even if you consider the lower (much) cost to purchase.