so ive been flying whoops for about a year and decided to finally jump into a proper 5inch freestyle build. got a Botgrinder frame coming in next week and ive been trying to figure out the electronics stack situation. everyone seems to either run an AIO stack or do separate FC + 4in1 ESC and i honestly cant tell when one is better than the other for a beginner build.

like i get that having separate components means you can replace just the ESC if you fry it without replacing the whole board, but is the wiring actually that much more complicated? i watched a couple build videos and some guys are just throwing an AIO in there and calling it done in like 40 minutes, meanwhile other builds look like a rat nest of wires running everywhere.

also curious what people are running for motors on a budget 5inch. was looking at the T-Motor Velox V2 2306s but open to suggestions. trying to keep the whole build under 200 bucks not including the quad itself obviously

honest answer ? for a first 5inch build just get a stack. the Mamba F405 + 50A ESC combo is like 60-70 bucks and thousands of people have built on it without issues. yes you lose the modularity but unless youre constantly frying ESCs (which hopefully youre not) it doesnt really matter. the wiring on a proper stack is actually pretty clean, 4 motor wires into the ESC board, then the stack connector between FC and ESC, done. way less headache than trying to manage individual components when you dont have much experience yet.

for motors, the Velox V2s are fine but if youre on a budget honestly look at the RCINPower GTS V2 or even the Emax Eco II. both punch above their price point and i ran Eco IIs on my practice quad for almost two years before i upgraded.

i literally just finished my first 5inch like three weeks ago so im probably not the best person to ask lol but i went with a SpeedyBee F405 V3 stack and it was honestly not bad to solder. the hardest part for me was the capacitor leads and getting the motor screws tight without stripping them on the Aluminium standoffs. the ESC question stressed me out way more before i started than it ended up being