Shuffleman

I am curious as to what you value most, the groupset or the front fork on a hardtail? If you are on a budget and could only pay attention to one, which would it be?
I am leaning towards the shock personally.
In my newest mtb purchase I have the choice.
Alivio groupset with a Suntour fork.
Deore groupset with a Rockshox fork.
My other option is to buy the bike with the Alivio groupset and purchase the Rockshox fork from Merlin and swapping them out. I could then sell the Suntour fork on Ebay for some change to offset the cost.

I am leaning towards the third option but was curious what others thought.

ColinL

Fork by a mile. The fork is your most important component on a MTB. If it's full suspension, the rear suspension design and shock type are next.

Groupset is not very important, other than weight.

Brakes would be 3rd most important, or 2nd most important if it's a hardtail. This all assumes the bike has the right geometry for what you want to ride and it fits. Those are assumed.

Seb71

Although this is a somewhat old topic, it seems that you have some wrong information. It looks like you think that Alivio is better than Deore. In fact, Deore is better than Alivio.

ColinL

No, he was taking about upgrading from a suntour fork to RockShox.

Seb71

He had two choiches: Suntour fork paired with Alivio and Rock Shox fork paired with Deore (probably at similar cost).

He thought he had a difficult choice between better fork (Rock Shox) paired with what he thought is a lesser groupset (Deore) or worse fork (Suntour) paired with what he thought is a better groupset (Alivio).

Also from this dilemma he got his idea of a third choice: buy the bicycle with Suntour fork (and Alivio groupset) and upgrade the fork to Rock Shox.

catonec 

This is what I got from his post too.

catonec 

OP if you can afford the deore groupset with a rockshock, go for that.

jimc101

If the OP can afford to do that, wouldn't just buying a better spec'd bike in the first place be a more cost effective option.

With any bike, buying and upgrading straight away, normally says you bought the wrong one in the first place.

With the options given

The Deore/Alivio choice is pretty simple, do you want 10 or 9 speed.

The current Deore (M610) is in it's last year/18 months, an may go 11 speed time, Alivio (M4000) is new this year and looks very nice

The Fork is difficult, are you talking a high end Suntour vs Low end RS or vise versa? without knowing which fork, and which version of that fork, the question really can't be answered.

No mention of the frame, if it has a taped headtube (without this, fork upgrades are going to be hard) wheel size (for 2015, it's 27.5, 26" is dead, 29er will follow soon) does it fro a thru axle front? all these things need to be taken into consideration, it's the package, not just the groupset or forks.

Shuffleman

A little late to the party but still appreciated. I was looking at a 2014 and a 2015 Scott at that time. I was getting a deal on the 14 and it had the Deore. I ended up doing something way different though. I bought a 2015 Giant Revel for $550.00. I turned around and bought the Suntour Radon fork in their upgrade program. I put that fork on and sold the other Suntour fork that came with the bike on Ebay. I think my total for the bike ended up around $690. I really like the bike with this Shock. I was skeptical of Suntour but the price on the Radon with the discount was worth trying it out. My wife's bike has the same Suntour shock as the Revel came with. It is ok for her as she only rides to accompany my son and I upon occasion but it is nowhere near as nice as the Radon. As for the groupset, it has really been fine. No problems thus far.

osco53

Spend the coin and go up to SLX gear, If you want a good Suntour you need to go up to the Raidon level.

Those SR or SXR, SCR, whatever beginner Suntour forks got this little sticker down low on the inside of one leg, sez, "This fork Intended for mom to follow the kids up and down a hard pack dirt or gravel road or ride to the store for beer"
You will soon find this fork lacking on any single track rides or any flat off road ride at any speed where you have a breeze in your face,,
Trust me on this one rider......

https://www.srsuntourna.com/upgrade/

$189 lands you the Raidon, a $350 fork,,,just sayin...