ok so ive been flying a pre-built Nazgul for about 8 months and im ready to actually build something myself. done a ton of research but at this point i think im just going in circles reading the same stuff over and over so figured id just post and see what people think.

heres what im planning: Apex HD 5" frame (the 225mm one), F7 stack from Aikon, gonna run the 2306 2450kv motors from T-Motor, Foxeer Razer Mini for the cam. for the VTX im still going back and forth between the Rush Tank Solo and just going full DJI O3 but the price jump is significant and im not sure its worth it yet. running 4s not 6s cause most of my 6s packs are beat.

the thing im most unsure about is the FC/ESC combo honestly. i have no strong preference on flight controller brand but i know betaflight support matters and i dont want to be fighting with obscure target files six months from now. is the Aikon stack actually solid or should i be looking at something else in that price range. also wondering if my motor kv is off for freestyle on 4s, i see people running lower kv sometimes.

not planning to race this, just park and parking lot stuff, maybe some light woods flying. nothing insane.

motor kv looks fine for 4s freestyle, 2306 2450kv is pretty much a classic combo at this point. you might even get away with 2550kv if you find a deal but 2450 is solid and motors like that T-Motor V2 lineup handle it well without getting too warm. just make sure your props arent undersized, run a 5148 or similar tri-blade and youll be good.

on the FC question ? honestly the Aikon stacks have been hit or miss from what ive seen in my build group. not bad but not the smoothest betaflight experience either. if you can stretch a bit the Kakute H7 or even a Matek H743 is worth the extra cash just for the reliability and how well documented they are. Matek stuff in particular has great target support, like you said you dont want to be digging through github at 1am trying to figure out why your OSD is broken.

skip O3 for now honestly unless youre already in the DJI ecosystem and have goggles. the Rush Tank Solo does what you need and you can always swap VTX later, frames with good VTX mounting usually dont care either way.

im in a similar spot so following this thread. i ended up going with a Speedybee F405 stack for my current build and its been pretty painless to set up in betaflight, lots of youtube resources for it too which helped me a lot since i was new to manual configuration. might be worth a look if youre budget conscious, its cheaper than some alternatives and i havent had issues in like 3 months of flying it.