ok so ive been flying whoops and 3inch toothpicks for about a year now and i think im ready to step up to a proper 5inch freestyle build. ive been watching builds on youtube for months and i kind of have an idea of what i want but the stack situation is where im getting lost.

my budget is somewhere around $300-350 for the full build not counting the receiver and camera since i have those already (runs a crossfire nano and an runcam phoenix 2). im looking at either going the SpeedyBee F405 V3 stack route because everyone says its solid for the price, or spending a bit more on an Aikon AK32 35x35 setup. the aikon stuff looks clean but i cant really find many recent reviews that arent from like 2021.

frame wise im probably doing a TBS Source One or maybe an Apex just because i like the looks of the Apex more honestly. weight isnt a massive concern for me since im not racing.

also not sure whether to go 4in1 ESC or separate ESC setup. everyone has an opinion on this and they all contradict each other so.

the SpeedyBee F405 V3 stack is genuinely fine, i ran one for about 8 months before i upgraded and had zero issues. the BEC output is a bit weak if youre running a DJI O3 or something power hungry but for crossfire and a phoenix 2 you wont even notice. Betaflight support is good too, no weird FC quirks to deal with.

on the 4in1 vs separate ESC thing ? for freestyle just do a 4in1. easier to wire, less points of failure, and the weight savings are negligible. the only time i'd push someone toward separate ESCs is if they're doing long range or something where they need to replace individual ESCs without reflashing the whole board. for bashing around a field a 4in1 is just less headache.

Apex frame is a good call btw, the arm thickness on those is decent and they hold up better than Source One in my experience. Source One looks cool but ive cracked a couple sets of arms on them and the hardware situation gets annoying.

so this is basically the same decision i was making like 3 months ago lol. ended up going with the SpeedyBee stack and an Apex frame and its been great. motors i went with Xing2 2306 and i kind of wish id gone slightly lower KV for the freestyle stuff but its not terrible.

one thing nobody told me when i was building ? get a good set of XT30 or XT60 connectors sorted BEFORE you start the build, like figure out what your battery situation is first because i had to redo my power leads twice which was annoying and probably not great for the pads.