More Hardtail buying

Right, I've been to a couple of shops, and so far I've seen the Trek 6700
with disc brakes, the Kona Cinder Cone and the Specialized Rockhopper Comp
Disk.

The Kona would be a great bike, but the MZ fork sounds like a POS. I've not
looked closely at the Rockhopper, and the Trek seems a pretty nice bike to
me. Does the Rockhopper have a strange front mech - I noticed that the
cabling runs down the bottom tube rather than along the top tube? Are the
Manitou and Rock Shox forks on the Specialized / Trek any good? I know
Marzocchi are meant to be the fork daddys, but I'm not sure if I'll get an
MX Comp, Hydraulic Discs and all the other gubbins I want on a bike at this
price.