Mountain Biking - Entry level bike to choose

Hi all
I'm looking for a mountain bike with a budget around $600. I'm looking for a bike to do some trail, and to commute as well, I was wondering about those options I found online. they were
Full suspension
Schwin 405
Hard tail
Trek 4300 Disk
Cannondale F8
Specialized Hardrock Comp Disc

My questions are
At that prica range, should I get a FS or should I get a HT. if I should get a HT, which one should I choose between those 3.
Thanks a lot in advance :)

Hardtail........

So which one would you think is better? Or do you have any recommendation?

Ive had a trek 3900 for about 4 years now. Miles of smiles
For your price range id choose one of the hardtails. Trek, cannondale, and specialized all build really good bikes.

Hardtail, unless you have a really rough offroad commute.

I've been using a Trek 4300 for dark and rainy commuting, fireroads, and easy singletrack and it's been good value.

So I'll decide to get the hardtails, But I am kinda having trouble deciding if I should go with Trek or Cannondale, and Specialized, since it's so hard to compare them

So, after reading the forum for a while, I kinda like specialized more over the trek one, but I'm not so sure about the Cannondale one

Out of the bicycles mentioned, I would recommend the Specialized Hardrock comp disc, personally. Reasoning?

Crankset has replaceable chainrings. Both the Trek and Cannondale are using a Shimano Altus crankset which does not have replaceable chainrings.

The Hardrock has a lockout on the fork, which you can use while road riding. The Cannondale does not. I'm not sure if the Trek does. Interestingly, the Trek 4300 has a different fork in its picture on the website than what the text below that picture says should be there. What's going on, Cannondale?

The Hardrock is equipped with SRAM X5 for a rear derailleur, SRAM's equivalent to Deore (higher in quality than both the Acera on the Cannondale and the Alivio on the Trek)

Hardrock has Avid BB5, which isn't a top notch brake, but it's pretty decent for the price tag. This is more of an opinion thing, but I prefer these over the Tektro IO and Shimano 416 (Alivio grade) on the Trek and Cannondale

Lastly, opinion again, I think the Specialized Hardrock just looks cooler than the other two. It's got a nice smooth sweep on the top that's just a bit nifty, and the colour scheme on the bike is nice.

I'd personally recommend giving them all a test ride and seeing if one really fits well and stands out, of course.

But if it were a matter of picking one for the features, so long as the price was relatively level, I think that the Hardrock is the pick for me.

I have a 3900, and I've beat the living heck out of it.... its been incapacitated for some time now. Partly due to this being my learnign curve bike, both riding and mechanics
I'd go with the hardrock, I rode a hard rock before and it was a much more comfortable bike to ME. Like mentioned above, it also comes with more bang for your buck.

Spec. Hardrock.

Hands down.

It will put hair on your little hobbit feet.

Alright, so it's decided then, I kinda like the HardRock more than the Trek also, but I'll go to my LBS and test ride both of them, to see which I feel more comfortable, thanks a lot for all of your responds

I was looking for a bike for the about the same thing as you and was looking at pretty much the same bikes, wasn't considering full suspension though. I ended up with a 2010 Specialized Rockhopper and couldn't be happier, for me it was the most comfortable, and value packed bike.

I got a 4300 for my fiancee a while back.

It was missing the rear wheel and the cranks were messed up. I replaced the wheel and upgraded the cranks straight away to ones with removable chainrings.

Less than $300 spent in total, and it's a great bike.

But, if you want new, I'd also vote for the Speshy.