I went with steamboat's group buy after looking at the quickest way to get a complete miner built (in US) by someone that has a strong reputation, good communication, and seems to be heading down the most plausible path. I don't want to go down a cheaper path and end up with raw ASIC chips I am then struggling with finding someone to populate into a complete miner.

I am also not that convinced that lower chip orders will matter that much. It wouldn't surprise me if, once Avalon starts cranking out chips, there isn't that much time difference between the first order and the last one shipped.