so ive been lurking here for a few months now and i think im finally ready to pull the trigger on an fpv setup. my budget is somewhere around 300-400 for the quad itself, not counting goggles and radio which ill deal with separately. the thing is i cant figure out if it makes more sense to just grab something prebuilt like a BetaFPV or Emax Tinyhawk type deal or if i should just go full custom from the start. i see people saying all the time that building teaches you how to fix things which yeah makes sense but i also dont want to spend like 6 weeks soldering a build and then crash it day one and have no idea whats wrong. been flying a tiny whoop borrowed from a friend for a few weeks so im not totally new to the sticks but definitely not confident enough to say im good either. any thoughts? also is DJI O3 worth worrying about at this budget or is analog still the move

honestly for where you're at i'd say go prebuilt but not because building is hard, more because you'll learn just as much fixing crashes and that's gonna happen a lot early on. something like the BetaFPV Pavo Pico or even an older Tinyhawk 2 freestyle if you can find one used is solid for learning and the parts are easy to source when you inevitably snap an arm or fry a motor. the O3 question is a real one but at your budget analog makes way more sense, you can grab some decent Eachine or even Fat Shark Recon goggles used and have money left over. DJI is great but it's a whole ecosystem cost thing, goggles alone eat your whole budget twice over

im kind of in the same boat actually, ended up going with a prebuilt Iflight Nazgul Evoque a few months ago and its been pretty great tbh. had a few crashes and replacing parts wasnt too bad once i figured out what i was looking at. i think the prebuilt vs custom debate is kinda overblown like yeah building is cool but if you just wanna fly its not really necessary at first. analog is definitely the move at your budget, dont let anyone pressure you into O3 until you know you're sticking with the hobby