Road Cycling - Ritchey PRO Z or Mavic Cosmos front wheel HELP!

I'm looking for an inexpensive wheel as a spare/second wheel.
This will likely be matched with either a Mavic Ksyrium Elite rear or a Tiagra/Alexrims custom rear, depending on the situation.

I've read some bad things about the Ritchey's breaking spokes...but that may be the rear.. I'm not purchasing the rear.

The Ritchey is 680g and $89 Retail is $199
The Cosmos is 820g and $79 Retail is $149

Or should I save up for a better second wheel?

i've ridden with a few people that are happy with the cosmos. if youre looking for an inexpensive training wheel, you should be able to find 105 or ultegra/open pro wheels pretty cheap.

I've seen them for $99, which is more than $79.
at the weight of the Ritchey, I would consider it as a front match with my elite, as it's 70g lighter, and both have bladed spokes, though that doesn't mean it will perform better.

I haven't done an exact comparison, but I've got both wheels. I normally use Topolinos on my main bike, a Tuscany, but right now the front Topolino's in the shop for a hub rebuild, so I'm temporarily using the original Cosmos that came standard on the Tuscany. (Rear wheel is still a Topolino.) I've also got a BreakAway for travel, and it comes with Ritchey wheels, naturally. I definitely noticed the difference between the Topolino and the Mavic right away. Not only was the Mavic sluggish (could be from the extra weight or even from its less aero profile), but the ride was noticably harsher. I hadn't realized how good a job the Topolinos do at absorbing road shock. Of course, the Ritchey's on a completely different bike, so direct comparisons are tricky, but when the Tuscany had both Topolinos, switching back and forth from it to the BreakAway (which I did often to get the BreakAway positioning dialed in), I never noticed any significant difference attributable to the wheel set. That suggests that the Ritcheys ought to win out over the Mavics. Like you, I've seen the reports of spoke breakage with the Ritcheys, and it makes me nervous (especially on a travel bike which is likely to ridden God knows where). No problems so far, though. I did go ahead and acquire some spare spokes for the Ritchey, just in case. For me, it was impossible to find them local, and I had to order online. Also, I never could find any in black, so if you ever see a guy riding a BreakAway with one silver spoke, it probably means I've broken one and had to replace it with the spare.

Stephen