I found IronHorse and Specialized in the 2006 lineup gave much more for the dollar. I too was on a limited budget and shopped for quite a while as i knew i wouldnt have the resources to make another purchase for a while.
Eventually, i saved an extra $100 and that moved me into a position to be able to buy the bike i wanted. I ended up with a Rockhopper comp disc, but nearly went with the regular rockhopper comp. Unfortunatly, the RH in 07 is slightly downgraded, so im not sure how it stacks up against 07 Konas. In the end i decided that most bikes in my range were all essentially the same, some had better brakes, others had better forks, others still had better drive train. I decided fork was most important (assuming i liked the frame) and went with the RH that came with the Tora 318...far and away better than the marz mz-3 that came on the cinder cone, and still better than the mz-2 that came on the caldera. IronHorse is worth a look too if you can find them....i nearly got one.
Don't be swayed by drivetrain stuff i reckon. I run LX, it works fine. Yeah the caldara came with XT and hfx-9 hydros...but the fork on the RH was worth more to me, and im happy with LX until it breaks, and the bb5's stop me well enough.