okay so ive been flying whoops and 3inch toothpicks for about a year and a half and im finally trying to do a proper 5inch freestyle build. done a lot of reading but im still kind of lost on the motor/ESC pairing thing. like i get that you want your ESC amp rating to be higher than what the motors can pull but how much headroom are we actually talking here

im looking at the Xing2 2306 2450kv motors and trying to decide between a 45a and 60a 4in1. is the extra cost of the 60a worth it if im just going to be doing park freestyle, not racing or anything super aggressive. i feel like everyone just says get the highest rated ESC you can afford but that doesnt really help me figure out whats actually necessary vs overkill

also any thoughts on stacking a separate FC vs an AIO stack for this kind of build would be appreciated, im going back and forth on it

for 2306 2450kv on 6s the xing2s can pull like 38-42a per motor at full throttle burst depending on the prop. so 45a is technically fine on paper but real world youre going to get the ESCs running hot if you're riding that limit for more than a few seconds at a time, especially if your airflow situation isnt great inside the stack. i personally just do 60a and stop thinking about it. the price difference on something like a mamba or a speedybee stack is maybe 15-20 bucks which over the life of the build is nothing

on the FC question ? separate FC and ESC gives you more flexibility for repairs, burn an ESC and you swap just that. AIO is cleaner and lighter but if one thing goes you're replacing the whole board sometimes. for a first 5inch i'd probably do a proper stack just so you're learning how everything connects

i went through basically this exact thing a few months ago lol. ended up going with a 55a 4in1 which is kind of a weird middle ground but it was what was in stock. honestly havent had any issues but i also dont really push it that hard. my betaflight temps look fine after packs

the AIO vs stack thing ? i went AIO for my build just because i wanted it clean and it was my first 5inch and didnt want too many connections to mess up. worked out okay but i did fry the ESC half after a bad crash and had to replace the whole board which sucked. so like the other person said, stacks are probably smarter if you're still learning