Try this: Choose a bike that you like and take note of the price and the components specced. Then go online and research the best prices you can find for a similar frame and and the components used on that bike. Odds are high that you will spend almost twice as much building that way. When I built my bikes, I was working for a bicycle products distributor. I was given the frames, they were rejects with cosmetic flaws. The components I bought were from our overstock, I bought them at a small fraction of the retail price. You claim to not want to engage in a year long build project. Taking time to hunt down individual parts at the best possible price would be the only way to build up a bike at a cost comparable to or better than the retail price of the bike you want