ok so ive been flying whoops and tiny stuff for about a year and a half now and i think im ready to actually build a proper 5 inch. been watching builds on youtube forever but now i need to actually commit to parts and i keep going in circles.

frame is sorted, gonna go with the iFlight Nazgul frame i already have sitting in a box. motors im thinking BrotherHobby Tornado T2 2306 1700kv since i mostly want to fly 4s. its the FC/ESC stack thats killing me. everyone seems to have an opinion and half the stuff i read is from like 2021 so im not sure whats still relevant.

been looking at the SpeedyBee F405 V3 stack because its cheap and has bluetooth which would be nice for tuning without dragging a laptop out. but then some guy in another thread was going on about how betaflight support on SpeedyBee boards is spotty or something? idk if thats still true. the other option is the Aikon AK32 4in1 with a separate F7 FC but thats getting pricier and honestly i dont know if i need an F7 for freestyle.

also not sure what RX to go with. i have a Radiomaster Boxer so i was just gonna do ExpressLRS but which receiver? the EP2? everyone seems to use those but i heard the antenna placement matters a lot on a 5 inch build.

SpeedyBee F405 V3 is fine, whoever told you betaflight support is spotty is probably thinking of older versions or had a bad unit. ive had mine running 4.4.x no problem. for a first 5 inch freestyle build its honestly more than enough, the bluetooth thing is genuinely useful when youre at the field and dont want to mess with a laptop.

F7 isnt really necessary for freestyle, the extra processing headroom matters more for racing or heavy filtering setups. save the money and put it toward a decent VTX or a second set of props cause youre gonna crash a lot at first, no offense.

for the ELRS receiver yeah EP2 is fine, just make sure you zip tie or heat shrink the antenna so it sticks out the back of the frame and isnt tucked under anything. ive had dropout issues when the antenna was flopping around near the carbon fiber arms. little bit of careful routing makes a big difference.

i went through basically this exact same decision a few months ago lol. ended up going SpeedyBee and honestly no regrets. one thing i will say is double check your motor screw lengths before you close everything up, i stripped a standoff because i just grabbed whatever screws were in the bag without measuring and it was a whole thing.