ok so ive been flying prebuilts for about a year and a half now and i think its finally time to just do a proper scratch build. been watching videos for weeks and i think i have a decent idea of whats going on but the motor and ESC pairing is still kinda confusing me.

the plan is a 5" freestyle quad, nothing crazy, just want something that rips and isnt going to fold in half every time i bin it. i was looking at the iFlight Xing2 2306 motors but then someone in a discord told me those run hot and i should look at T-Motor Velox or maybe Brotherhobby instead. i dont really have a strong preference i just dont want to spend $80 on motors that cook themselves after 3 packs.

for ESC i was thinking a 4in1 to keep the build clean, probably 45A or 55A. is there actually a meaningful difference between 45 and 55 for freestyle or am i just paying for headroom i'll never use? running 6S by the way.

frame is probably going to be a Source One v5 or maybe a Squall if i can find one in stock anywhere. any thoughts appreciated, been going back and forth on this for like 3 weeks now

the Brotherhobby Returner R5 or the Avenger series are both solid choices, i've had two sets of Avengers running on 6S for almost a year and they barely get warm after a full pack of hard flying. the T-Motor Velox V2s are good too but they're a bit pricier and honestly for freestyle the difference is pretty marginal unless you're racing competitively or something.

on the ESC thing ? 45A vs 55A on 6S for freestyle really is mostly headroom. you're not gonna pull sustained 45A per motor doing flow freestyle, but if you're the type to do a lot of throttle punches or you ever want to try 3D, the extra headroom is nice because burst current spikes happen faster than the ratings suggest. id honestly just go 55A if the price difference is under $15 or so, not worth thinking about otherwise.

Source One v5 is fine for a first build, its not the most crash resistant thing ever but the arms are replaceable and its dead cheap to fix. Squall is nicer but if you're still learning to build id save the nicer frame for build number 2 when you actually know what you want

not to derail but i had the same debate like 6 months ago and ended up going with the Xing2 2207.5s instead of the 2306 and honestly cant complain, they run warm-ish after hard 6S sessions but not dangerously hot or anything. i think the hot motor thing gets overstated a lot depending on your prop choice and how you tune betaflight. running 5.1x4.6 HQs on mine and they're fine.

also just throwing it out there ? the Mamba F722 stack is pretty well priced right now if you want a flight controller and ESC combo that isnt going to give you headaches setting up. got one in my current build and it was basically plug and play compared to some other stacks ive dealt with