The smaller bevel gears are the ones that shatter, while the pinions will break off at the hole in the shaft. HPI has some new, hardened pinions, and I haven't broken one of those yet - today was my fourth broken differential, two deaths by pinion and two deaths by bevel gear.
The gears are shattering cause they're hardened. You have to use tungsten carbide bits on hardened steel. TRX spyders (without shaft) are T and E Maxxes diff weakest part. RRP stuff is weaker yet (heat treating is not the best).
I've had decent luck with FLM diff cup upgrade - you get a new ring modded to use 3mm vs the 2mm stock screws and a better arrangement for the spyder cross shaft - its kinda keyed into a slot in the FLM alum diff cup so its less prone to move and bust spyders. The other thing needed are alum diff cases - even the 4 screw cases from 3.3 will not be strong enough to resist flexing that lets R&P pull just enough apart to start stripping teeth. Buy the cheapest alum diff cases you can find and a set of alum diff collars too.
The alum diff cases and the flm diff cup will last for a while - stronger than stock. The next step up is to HB diffs in flm hybrids or UE 6 or 8 sypder diffs. I've been thru this all this with small block to big block swap on Tmaxx.
Ah, that explains the shattering while drilling. I thought it might have been because I have cheap drill bits.
Unless I misunderstood, your other recommendations are for Maxx trucks, right? I may tuck those away in case I get sick of replacing diffs on my E-Savage and buy one of the new E-Maxx trucks instead. :-)