I spent last month all over the internet looking at pre-built wheels, and building wheels here and there. What a quandary. Almost bought Easton EA90sl's but ended up building wheels at PWB and spending a bit more than I had budgeted. Serves me right for getting picky about the spokes... Oh well.

Ended up with White Industries hubs, Sapim race spokes, Velocity Aerohead rims and USE SpinSticks skewers. $770 with Rox rimstrips and the skewers. 24fr/28rear, 2x. I had budgeted around $500. Well I was close, sorta.

You could probably stay close to your budget by using whatever skewers you have and standard double-butted spokes. ProWheelBuilder did a good job on the build and the wheels are very light. And there is something about WI chrome hubs, just classy looking. When you get wheels built, you call the shots, and you decide what you need and what you are willing to spend for and how it is built, not some marketing guy.