£350 price limit, under 1850 grams, reasonably strong, suitable for xc riding with the occasional trail centre trip.
Moon on a stick job?

Use your existing hubs and build them onto some nice rims with decent spokes?

I built my old hope hubs onto DT X470 rims with double butted spokes and alloy nipples. I’m sure it cost less than £200 all in… so doable on XT hubs for £350.

Edit:

80 DT comp spokes and 80 alloy nipples are £44 from rose bikes. Factor in £60/70 for some XT hubs and you’ve got some cash left over for a decent pair of rims, maybe evern some LB carbon ones.

You might still be able to pick up an Easton Haven wheelset for less than that. Just make sure to look after the hubs. Mine are still going strong after 18 months of use. Weight was approx 1800g with tubless valves fitted.

Stans Arch EX on Hope Pro 2’s

+ 1 for Arch EX on Hope Pro2

bit more money, but the new American classic wide lightening!!!!
ohhhh really nice!

Hope Hoops on Crests/Arch Ex depending on your preference for strength versus weight.

New Hope Enduros, very strong and faultless so far. Plus better tubeless performance than Stan’s. Oh, and they look pretty good too.

Bought the hope tech xc rims on pro 2 hubs in leisure lakes a couple of months ago for £320 (15% VIP discount)…very, very, very happy with them. Light, fast and strong enough to carry my 16.5 stone bulk around!

thanks for the input guys, some useful feed back there,
Mark.