ok so ive been flying ready to fly stuff for about a year and a half now and im done letting other people make the decisions for me lol. i want to build my own 5 inch freestyle quad and i have a rough idea of what i want but theres so many options im going in circles.

so far im thinking the iFlight Nazgul frame or maybe the TBS Source One v5 because i like how open the design is and the Source One has been around forever so parts are easy to find. motors im leaning toward Xing2 2306 or maybe the T-Motor Velox series but honestly i dont know if the price difference is even worth it for a first build.

the part im most stuck on is the stack. i was originally going to go Speedybee F405 because everyone on youtube seems to use it these days and its cheap, but someone on another thread said i should just get a proper AIO and save myself the wiring headache. im not scared of soldering but if an AIO is actually better for a first build id consider it.

running Walksnail for video because i already have the goggles from my other quad. i know thats gonna eat into weight and budget a bit but im not going back to analog honestly.

any thoughts on the stack question especially? or if anyones built on the Source One recently id love to hear how it held up

Source One is fine but honestly for a first build id go with something with a bit more frame rigidity, the Source One arms can feel a little flexy depending on how you fly and if you bin it learning freestyle the carbon can crack in annoying spots. Ive built on both and the Nazgul or even the stretched X designs from iFlight tend to survive crashes better in my experience.

on the stack question ? AIO for a first build is probably the right call. not because AIOs are inherently better but because troubleshooting a stack when youre still learning Betaflight is genuinely painful. less solder joints, less stuff to go wrong, easier to trace problems. Speedybee does a solid AIO actually, the F405 AIO version is worth a look if you want to stay in that ecosystem. the full stack is great once you know what youre doing but yeah.

motors, the price difference between Xing2 and Velox is real but so is the quality gap imo. Velox spin smoother out of the box and the build quality is noticeably tighter. not saying Xing2 are bad, just that if your budget can stretch it the Velox are worth it for your first proper build where youre going to be tuning and noticing everything.

i built on a Source One v5 like 4 months ago and its holding up fine, crashed it plenty. just make sure you get the 4mm arm version not the 3mm, thats the one that actually holds up. only thing i'd add is route your wires carefully on that frame because the layout is pretty open and stuff can get into props if youre lazy about it like i was the first time lol