Scott Adams coined the phrase about telephone companies, but it fits here as
well - confusopoly.

BatchPCB is just an order pooling sevice, they don't actualy make any
boards. Their charge is $10/order $2.50 per inch but it includes shape
routing, solder mask and silk screen on _both_ sides. Delivery times can be
nearly a month while they wait for enough orders to fill a panel.

GoldPhoenix  (http://www.goldphoenixpcb.biz/special_price.php) is $89.99 for
155 in sq including worldwide shipping (some exceptions)  The site's a
little confusing, but I think they charge an extra $30 if you put more than
one design on a panel. These are the same guys that BatchPCB uses.

CustomPCB is $78 for 2 8x11 panels, but then they charge for the extras:
$15/setup $4/panel PER SIDE for solder mask, $48 setup $3/panel for
silkscreen (doesn't specify one side or both- I suspect that's per side),
$20/ setup for complex shapes. $8/setup per design to merge layouts,
$0.50/board for depanelizing, and they will not depanelize customer merged
files.

4pcb is $33 for a 60 square inch board (min 3 unless you're a student, then
min1) with silk and solder mask - but no panelizing allowed.

Olimex is $33 for a (about) 6x4 inch board with silk and solder mask,
panelizing allowed (and they'll merge your files and depanelize for free)

Futurlec (http://www.futurlec.com/PCBService.shtml) is $15 setup and $0.65
per inch plus $12 per side for each solder mask and silk.

ExpressPCB is either $51 for three 2.5 by 3.8 inch boards - no silk or
solder mask or $179 for four 21 sq inch boards with silk and soldermask and
shape routing.

And let's not even mention non-standard drill size charges......

So which is cheapest? Is anybody else as confused as I am? I think I'll go
to bed now.

-Denny

BTW, I've mixed through hole and surface mount parts on lots of boards and
never had any problems getting them made.

> Is it just me, or is that price very high?
>
> I've been considering ordering from http://www.custompcb.com/
>
> They charge $78 for 2 8x11 panels (double sided), with no setup fee.  That
> works out to 44 cents/sq inch.  Of course the price drops as you order
more.
>
> Depanalizing is 50 cents/board, or free for boards over 15 square inches.
>
> A 4x3" board, the maximum size from the free version of eagle, is 12*2.50
+
> $10 = $40 at batchpcb.  At custompcb, I could pay $84 and get 12 boards.
So
> 1 board = $40, an additional 11 = $44 more.
>
> Even better, custompcb lets you panelize different designs.  So 1 each of
2
> different boards are $80 at batchpcb or 6 each of 2 different boards are
$84
> at custompcb.
>
> The only reason I haven't ordered is I want to have several board designs
to
> do at once and I generally only have a couple of projects going at a time.

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