Was just looking at ballasts (price-wise) for a few minutes and ended talking to someone else that confirmed that ALL ballasts (manufacturers) sold since 2009 are normally equipped ASIC chipset controller and have pretty similar features all along.

His way to define a good from a bad is rather simple. If you can hold the ballast in your hand after an hour of operation then it is the latest tech (safe). If too hot to hold >(edit)120ºF, it's the old/fake CPU type chipset style (i.e. bad).

That leaves me completely confused RE why I still have to pay double for the 'so called' latest gear around :/