To finish my hardtail build. Need some strongish/lightish 20mm wheels and brakes. Always had Hope/Mavic wheels and Avid brakes. But for £300 (and I do like Merlin wheels) these seem a very good buy.

Any reasons I shouldn't go for these. As a Hope/Avid combo is going to be another £100-£150.

I run SLX brakes on my HT, the're good, dunno about the wheels though.

Dunno about the SLX 20mm wheels, but i run the XT 20mm versions and they have been great. Selling soon though to go for something a touch lighter.

Not a fan of cup and cone personally so I'd not be overly keen on the wheelset myself

XTs brakes are on offer on Ribble for £140 (minus rotors)

Thanks all.

Will XT brakes work with non Shimano rotors?

They should do, as long as the braking surface and thickness of rotor are similar. I use mine with Ashima rotors, and friends use superstar rotors with success.

Should do, my slxs are running onto hope rotors without a problem, and they're very similar to xts

running my slx with magura venti rotors at the min no probs