ok so ive been flying whoops and prebuilts for like a year and a half and im finally pulling the trigger on building my own 5inch freestyle quad. ive been going back and forth on this for months and i think i have most of it figured out but im genuinely lost on the motor and ESC pairing.

im going with a TPU heavy freestyle style, not racing, so i dont need absolutely max efficiency but i still want it to feel snappy. budget is around $80-100 for motors and ESC combined which i know is tight but its what i got. currently looking at either the Xing2 2306 or the Brotherhobby Avenger 2306, both around 1750-1800kv for 6S. for ESC i was thinking a 45A 4in1 but honestly not sure if that rating matters as much as people say for freestyle vs racing.

also ? is it worth spending more on a BLHeli_32 ESC at this budget or just go AM32 and call it a day? feel like every thread i read is from 2020 and things have changed a lot since then.

AM32 is totally fine for freestyle, honestly the BLHeli_32 thing is a bit of a holdover from when AM32 was less mature. its come a long way. for your budget id just grab a used or sale-priced Diatone Mamba or similar 4in1 and spend the saved cash on decent motors.

on the motor side the Brotherhobby Avengers are solid but i personally think they're a little overhyped at this point. if you can catch the Xing2s on a sale they punch above their price. 1750kv on 6S is a pretty standard freestyle pick, you'll be fine. just make sure your frame can clear whatever stator size you go with, some 5inch frames are weirdly tight on motor screws.

45A should be plenty for freestyle on 5inch unless you're doing super aggressive long throttle bursts and even then you'd probably be fine. the ESC rating thing gets way overthought. i ran a 35A for like 6 months before upgrading and only had one issue and honestly that might have been a solder joint.