kit

i am looking to buy a reprap mendel kit. there are a few suppliers on the net, but i am not sure who is the most reliable or the best?

any advice would be really appreciate!

I bought mine off eBay from "tdhalton" - I had a bit of trouble with the threads on the rods where they had been cut & the lack of instructions for the non-standard parts, but all in all a good geal ($200 for all the printed parts, rods, and hardware). Now that it's assembled I'm happy with it, but there are probably better kits out there for beginners.

If you can find a local 3d printer group or hackerspace, they might be able to help you out more. I don't really have any 3d printing "mentors" in my area, so I'm still adjusting my config & finding out what I'm doing wrong, and I've had it 6 months.

Good luck!

Wow 200$ is quite low... Cheap chinese motors/electronics or something?

Nope, no motors, electronics, or hot end. Hence the price tag. Still, $130 for a Printrboard, $17 x5 for Sparkfun steppers, $90 for a hot end, $30 for a heated build platform, and a few odds & ends, and you're back up to $550. You're probably better off buying a full kit. I had some parts from a previous 3d printing project involving a Shapeoko CNC router modded to print, so it made sense for me.

Reprap Pro is the site for the designer of the reprap, Adrian Bowyer. You won't get more reliable than that.

I would consider the level of support you will get along with the price of the kit. There's a lot of threads here that start with "I can't get this working and I've got no information to go on ....". I can vouch for Maker Farm as having *excellent* support. There are others who also do a good job.

I purchased my mendlemax 1.5 from ebay. After reading the information supplied by the seller and their promise for help and support with the build from out of box to first print I made the purchase.
The support for the hardware assembly was OK not great. When it came time for set up and calibration they were done. When I asked for help with getting it to run they said it was "complicated".
Frustrated and angry I have been on my own going on my fourth week. The pictures of the printer they use are with the bright colored parts.
I would try to find a vendor that provides better support.

The MakerFarm kits seem to be easy to assemble and the "factory support" is great. I know that they aren't quite what you are after, but they are a very good kit.