Getting a new wheel set built up and in the process of sizing and ordering the spokes. I have run several spoke calculators on the net such as spocalc, wheelpro, DTswiss and sapim. Apart from Sapims which adds 2mm onto the other results they are all within .02mm of each other. the results are: front left 259.9-260.2, front right 260.8-261, rear left 261.04-261.3, rear right 259.7-259.9
I have searched sites and asked local shops wether I should round the total up or down with conflicting answers! I am buying sapim cx ray spokes which are only in even numbers, is their anyone who has experience with this and can give me sound advice on which size spoke I should purchase as they are going to cost £140 so don’t want to get it wrong! I am leaning towards 32 of 260mm and 32 of 262mm.
In a nut shell is it better to be short or long with spokes?

Apparently, you can go up and/or down by 1mm, see
Spoke Calculator under ‘Info’.
Also make sure that you have the correct nipple length in your calculation.

You should, as a rule of thumb, always round down slightly. You don’t want spokes that are too long, but if they’re up to 2mm shorter than ideal it’s less of a problem.

That said, with the spoke sizes you state that you need, I’d just order 64x 260mm spokes.

I also wouldn’t bother with CX-Rays either, they may look nice but they offer very little over non-bladed spokes for Mountain Bikes. FAR better to buy DT Super-comps or Revolutions (for no weight penalty) for Mountain Bike wheels. On a road bike you gain a slight aero advantage if you’re hammering along sure, but on an MTB it’s not worth it. And You’ll save a heap of cash too!

If the spokes do not have to be CX-Ray have a look at Rose Bikes web site for spokes, I just bought some spokes from them last weekend and they were delivered by Tuesday. I went for DT Competition spokes in black and got 80 spokes and nipples for £39.20 + £5.05 postage and it looks like you could get the DT Swiss Revolution spokes in Silver for the same price.

Yes, spokes that are too long run out of thread so you can’t tighten them enough, so rounding down is best. If you want lightweight I can recommend Sapim Lasers as well at DT Revs.

Many thanks for all the info, I think I will go with 64x 260mm spokes as advised by mboy as makes sense. I know that their isn’t much gain on having the cx ray spokes, maybe a little stiffer and more longevity, I already have DT super comps on some other wheels and was going to get those, but this is my dream build with CK hubs for my MTB so looks are coming into it as well, I know its vain but I will only buy this sort of build once.
If your interested (but your probably not!) I’m going with silver alloy hubs, black bladed spokes, silver brass nipples and black ZTR Arch rims.