aye up new friends :)

[EddyCurrent]

Welcome, I see you intend buying a machine, if you look on ebay for example there are a number of reasonably priced new machines of that size.
e.g. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CNC-Router...item3f3d30606b
obviously a search about will bring up other machines in the UK. Chinese machines are cheap but you have to consider support / shipping / import fees / VAT, etc.
With regard to software, there is no 'best' as such, but there are loads of trials that will let you have a go, look through this thread for ideas; http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/6707-...D-CAM-Software

[Rigdiculous]

Cheers for your reply eddy.

i do intend on purchasing a cnc machine in the next 6 months, and have had experience with the Chinese products and their reliability/user friendly ness :(

i will ill dig deep in the forums to find as much info as possible before I purchase.