okay so ive been flying whoops and a couple of prebuilts for maybe 8 months now and i finally want to do a proper 5inch freestyle build from scratch. i have a rough budget of like $250-300 for the full build minus the radio and goggles cause i already have those sorted.

my problem is i keep going down these rabbit holes reading about motor KV ratings and ESC amp ratings and i feel like every thread i read gives me different advice. some people say 2306 2450kv is the sweet spot for 5inch freestyle, others are saying 2207 2750kv and now im just more confused than when i started. same deal with ESCs ? is a 4in1 always better than individual ESCs for a first build? i feel like individual ones are harder to replace if one goes but the wiring looks insane to me right now.

gonna be running 4s probably, maybe upgrading to 6s eventually but not right now. mostly want to do park freestyle, not racing. any help is appreciated, even just pointing me to a parts list someone has actually flown and not just copied from a youtube video

for a first 5inch on 4s honestly just go with a 4in1 ESC, the wiring on individual ESCs will drive you insane and if you crash hard enough to fry one ESC on a 4in1 you were probably gonna damage something else anyway. i ran a Mamba F405 stack for like two years before i ever touched individual ESCs and never had a reason to switch.

motor wise the 2306 vs 2207 debate is kind of overblown for freestyle. the real difference you'll feel is KV and prop combo more than the stator size. if youre on 4s id stick around 2400-2500kv and run 5148 tri-blades or HQ 5x4.3x3 props. that combo is pretty forgiving. T-motor Pacer or BrotherHobby Tornado T2 are both solid picks without going crazy on budget. dont overthink it for your first scratch build, just get something flying and tune from there.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually, i built my first 5inch like three months ago and the motor thing confused me too. i ended up just copying a build from a guy on youtube called JohnnyFPV i think, not exactly but close. it flew fine out of the box mostly. the betaflight setup took me longer than the actual build lol

one thing nobody told me ? get a good soldering iron before anything else. i had a cheap $15 one and the solder joints on my ESC looked terrible. borrowed a TS100 from a friend and it was night and day difference.