I was in about the same shape as you, I guess.. Wanted something that would do a good job without breaking the bank.. I went with hi-tensile, paid attention to the tips and tricks given out on this forum, and built as I could afford to build..
Today, I've got a six strand hi-tensile electric fence that will peg a 5-light tester, and we're in the "extreme" drought category right now. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with it.
The best tips I got were:
A) The ground system is half the fence. Do it right with plenty of ground rods driven deeply and set at least 10' apart.. I drove four eight-footers.. If you can't put them 8' straight down, drive them in at an angle.
B) Don't be a tightwad when you buy your charger. Look for UL-Listed, low-impedence pulse chargers, and judge them by the output joules.. Not miles, not stored joules -- OUTPUT JOULES. One rule of thumb I've heard is that you need about one joule per mile of hot wire.. I've got about 1-1/2 miles of hot wire connected to a 2-joule fencer.. Incidentally, it was advertised as a 50-mile charger, and the folks at TSC thought I was nuts.. Don't be fooled by the mileage rating like so many people seem to be, however. Output joules are all that matter!!!
C) When splicing wire, forget about the crimps or mechanical joints and use a square knot.. It's cheaper, faster to create, and it holds as well or better than anything else.
D) It's hi-tensile, not hi-tension. Strain the wire enough to keep it tight, but it doesn't need to twang like a banjo string.. Too much tension just puts undue stress on the corners, ends, out-of-line insulators, posts where the terrain dips, insulators where the terrain rises -- basically, everywhere the wire is restrained.. Plus, when it comes to an animal physically challenging hi-tensile, the only difference between too-tight and just-right is that you'll have more to repair with too-tight... The animal's going to win either way, so you might just as well leave yourself less to fix..
E) If your area is drought prone, hook the cold wires on your fence into your ground system.. That way, you don't depend entirely on the circuit travelling through dry dirt back to the ground rods.. For me, this bit of advice led me to install the ground rods about a quarter mile from the charger at the mouth of a little ephemeral draw where the ground's more moist and there's more topsoil to drive into.. I hooked all three cold wires on the fence to all four ground rods, unifying it all, and then hooked all three cold wires to the ground terminal on the box.. When it's dry like it is now, all they have to do is touch a hot and cold wire at the same time, and the circuit is completed in the space between the two.. That's about 9" of flesh, versus up to a half mile of bone dry dirt.. Works much better that way..
I'm rambling, so I'll stop there.. I just like hi-tensile a lot. :lol: