LOOK OUT!! The carbon fibre lobby group will be after you

I've been going through a similar process, so here's my 1.84 cents:

Are you heavy? This might help with your decision.

Firstly, be warned; not all 853 frames are equal, especially if you're looking at some older, second hand ones. Some use oversize downtubes, some older ones have lugs, etc, etc, which means that some are quite light, yet some are absolute anvils, so be very careful.

An affordable 853 bike that buyers seem to be happy with is one of the 2003 Fuji models (i think, the "Marseille"). There's a couple of regular contributors to this forum who own 853 bikes, and are happy with them (55/Rad and Shokhead), so you might wanna quiz them, if they don't mind.

The Cervelo Superprodigy uses a custom version of Columbus Ultrafoco (or Foco), which is lighter than 853, but 'I have heard stories' of guys breaking Ultrafoco frames -- however, Cervelo seem to have made a very strong, light product: http://www.efbe.de/defbefrm.htm. The Superprodigy also comes with a Columbus muscle fork (one inch steerer, I think), and sells (frame and fork only) for about $999. Some people have a problem with the fact that it is not made in Canada, but Taiwan, or "off shore" as Cervelo informed me via email. To answer your question, most "semi-pros" would say that these frames are "better" than the average 853 frame. They were even used in a few pro races in Europe by team CSC, which, as far as I know, is the first time in a long time that a steel was used by a European pro.

Reynolds seems to be more affordable that Italian tube sets, but, just to confuse the issue: Columbus have the "nivacrom" steels called "Genius" "Zona" and "Nemo", which might be worth looking at, and they've recently brought out some new "niobium" steels (sounds like something that powers the starship Voyager) called "Spirit" and "Life". Here's some more Columbus info which also includes the older tubing:
http://www.ceeway.com/Columbus-Tubing.htm
http://www.kvanproductions.com/cycli...production.htm

There are other tubing companies: True Temper (http://www.truetemper.com/performanc...ketube.htmland), which is not so ubiquitous, and Dedacciai (http://www.dedacciai.com/), which is gradually becoming more prevalent -- but, as I said, frames made from these tube-sets seem to be more expensive than Reynolds.