I ran the stock orange ECU and both of the FBO ECU's and one thing that I found to be the best upgrade was removing the ballast resister. I no longer have to worry about it not working and I no longer have to carry one in my car.

I am now using the MSD Streetfire #5520 module. I do agree that it is more expensive than the stock unit, and you have to bypass some of the stock wiring, but you can pick one up at your local Oreilly's ($149). It has LED's that help you diagnose or just let you know that it is running with enough voltage. It also has an adjustable rev limiter. This unit is one of the lesser expensive MSD boxes since it is a street unit, it is smaller in size and I believe they reference it as a #5 series (instead of the normal 6, or 7 series, etc.).