Electronics buyers guide?

As someone who´s just about to buy a new board I was wondering if someone/the crowd ever made the effort of judging all the different sources.

I read this post here lately about the huge price difference in Arduino products and when I look at the brand suppliers and official store basic arduino mega + ramps costs up to 4 time the average.
On the normal my normal student budget I naturally looking for clones/ china manufacturing and here its seems that china is not automatically mean bad.

For example i made good experiences with [www.botronicz.com] where I got my Sanguinololu from. The price is above average but the board worked without any issues for 1.5 year (until I shorted it) and their technical assistance is excellent. On the other hand I read here [forums.reprap.org] "avoid this company at all cost!"

So as an addition the [reprap.org] sources here one could give an opinion on the quality of the product.
This could be similar to what 3ders.org has on 3D printer kits [www.3ders.org] Im happy to host this listing here [printnewworlds.blogspot.nl] or in a google doc.

As a student myself I know what it is like to have a budget. The local importers here charge a fortune.

I found robotdigg.com recently. I haven't ordered from them yet, but reading reviews they seem to be good.
Their prices are competative if not cheaper by a huge margin with the lowest prices I have seen anywhere with the products I have seen on their site.
So make sure not to over look them

EDIT: I myself have gone with ramps 1.4 + arduino. It offers a lot of flexibilty, if a part dies it gets replaced individually as its all plugged together. I haven't tried any of the other boards so I can't vouch for them though I hear good things.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2014 06:19AM by TheTechnicalNoob.

Two (strong) reasons not to offer a market survey:

1. Such stuff is always outdated. There is no such thing as an objective opinion, wishes/preferences vary drastically.

2. RepRap isn't a marketplace. It's a community of makers and developers. The fact you have to buy something is only a side aspect. Stated goal of RepRap is not to enhance buying, but actually the opposite, to make buying unneccessary. As much as possible.

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