ok so ive been flying a pre-built for about a year now and i think im ready to do my first full custom build. going 5inch freestyle, mostly backyard stuff and maybe some light park flying. i dont race so top speed isnt really the priority, just want something that feels locked in and can take a few crashes without falling apart every time.

so far im thinking the iFlight Nazgul frame or maybe the TBS Source One but honestly i keep going back and forth. motors im looking at the Xing2 2306 or maybe the Hyperlite Flowride, both seem to get good reviews but i cant find a ton of real world comparisons that arent just sponsored content. running 4s probably, maybe 6s down the line.

for FC i was almost set on the Betaflight F7 stack from Diatone but my buddy keeps telling me to go with a Speedybee stack because the bluetooth tuning thing makes life easier for beginners. he's not wrong but i also dont want to buy something i'll outgrow in 6 months. anyone been down this road recently and have thoughts? especially on the motor choice, thats the part im most unsure about

the Source One is fine but honestly its a bit flexy compared to the Nazgul if you're doing anything remotely aggressive. i snapped two Source One arms in like a month just from normal freestyle, nothing crazy. the Nazgul feels way more solid. that said some people love the Source One and swear by it so maybe im just unlucky.

on motors ? Hyperlite Flowrides are genuinely great for freestyle, very smooth power delivery and they hold up decent. Xing2s are good too but i feel like the Flowrides have a slightly better feel for locked-in slow rolls and stuff like that. hard to explain but you kind of feel it. if you can stretch budget a little the Ethix S5s are also worth looking at.

Speedybee stack is not a bad call at all, the bluetooth thing sounds gimmicky but when youre sitting in a field tweaking rates on your phone its actually really nice. wouldnt call it something youll outgrow, its a solid stack.

im in basically the same boat lol, just started my first build last week. went with the Nazgul5 V3 frame and so far assembly is going fine, tolerances seem decent. havent flown it yet though so cant say much about how it actually handles crashes. one thing i will say is watch out for the standoff lengths if youre doing a stack build, i ordered the wrong length twice before getting it right which was annoying