Mountain Biking - New bike advice - Brand or No-name

I had my (insured) bike stolen the other day, so I'm in the market for a new one and while looking around I saw a couple of excellently spec'ed bikes from Cell and Hasa. Basically my price range is about AU$1100 and I'm really trying to decide between the 2009 Kona Caldera (which is on sale for 36% off) and the Cell MTX-0:

http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p348/QuinRiva/bike.jpg

The closest think from Giant in the price range is the Yukon, which really doesn't compare to the above bikes.

Anyway it's mostly for commuting, I do about 3-4 short treks of 5-7km every day around the city, but I've generally avoided road bikes due to the ****ty quality of the roads in Sydney and the fact that I often cut across parks and ride down stairs.

Any suggestions on which is the better buy?

Is the Kona $736 or $1150?

The Kona is $1150 down from the original price of $1800. The cell has better front derailleur and shifters as well as carbon handlebars/seatpost, although apparently it doesn't come with pedals (?), but I still have the Shimano M520's from my old Raceline Comp. I can't seem to find any info on the BM-468 discs to compare to the M575's on the Kona.

Actually I also came across another Raceline that looks pretty good (my last bike was a 2005 Apollo Raceline Comp Pro).

http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p348/QuinRiva/bike2.jpg

Looks pretty similar to the cell, but IIRC the Tora 318 are much better shocks than the Dart 2. I wasn't terribly satisfied with the HFX 9 brakes on my old bike so I don't know how the Shimano BM-468 or M575 compare. I don't do any DH riding or anything, but I found that Hayes tended to squeak a bit.

Only bike I've even heard about here in the US is the Kona, but since most frames at that pricepoint are likely of roughly the same quality, that's probably not a big deal. I also think the spec on the Cell is a bit nicer like you say, particularly the crank and hubs. Not crazy about carbon stems, bars or posts, YMMV, hopefully they're of decent quality. I wonder if it's a typo and they're BR-M486 brakes (can't find anything on a 468 either). There's probably not tons of difference among them OTOH.

I guess another serious consideration is the 'look' of the bike. Basically I don't want anything that 'looks' too fancy as they tend to get stolen.

Back when I did a bit more stair riding (the uni I went to was on a hill), I had a soft-tail cell, with 'fancy looking' rear suspension. Had two of them stolen in the space of a year.

I lock my bike up on the side of the road two or three times a day, so one of my best protections against theft is to have a crappy looking bike and as few quick release components as possible. Locks are all well and good, but there's no way I'm going to be individually chaining up both of my wheels two or three times a day, every day of the week.

Not crazy about carbon stems, bars or posts,

+1. A broken carbon bar through the chest can really spoil your day... :eek:

As for which bike - think ahead. For a first bike, buy a used one - or lose a load of money when it comes to upgrading... which you will do, I promise.