I bought some kind of yellow deep cycle battery from wall mart and it's been one heck of a good battery. I run a trolling motor and the winch on my trailer with it. It's probably at least 5 years old and still works fine.
Most of the Optimas that I've seen not work so well was because guys didn't take care of them. If you don't run an alternator it's critical to keep them charged after every race. I've killed it several times at the track at it charged back up without any problems I've had it for at least 3 years. I took it out of my race truck and it sat on the floor for a year then I put it in my Duramax when my truck wouldn't start one morning. It's been doing fine so I just haven't changed it out yet. Maybe I just got one of the few good ones. My luck usually doesn't go that way
I don't remember if he was asking for a race vehicle or daily driver, but a race application ( without alt) needs some attention to last very long.
Somebody said before that NAPA makes a good battery. Don't remember which one it was.