Yep mine was much better value building myself, mine came in a few k less than that and has XX1/XTR group set, 36 up front, Hope brakes as I preferred them to XTR’s, Thompson dropper, SIXC carbon bars, Hope parts for the rest of it etc. Wheels are Derby carbon rather than Ibis as I wanted them on hope hubs and building Derby’s on my choice of seemed better value.
The top end build kits of the SC’s, Ibis, Yeti etc are getting really poor value IMO. Found it much cheaper to get exactly what I wanted, and most of that was from standard bricks and mortar shops as they were prepared to come to an agreement on a deal. And I wanted to build myself so a win win for me.
Saying that the same build as the one reviewed but with X01 and X1 (still with carbon wheels) is £6.3k retail (still overpriced IMO) and you will likely be able to get a discount, you really don’t need to spend the price they listed!
Also the build they list has been dropped from the UK market it seems.
I bought it as for me it was the perfect bike and I wanted the build exactly as I wanted, cost was slightly less than other brands (about £300) as the frame was marginally cheaper just a long lead time, but I think that is true of any frame when its new. But you really don’t need to spend 8.5k particularly for the items you get.