1st time welder

All good advice. You will find that the off shore knock offs are exact copies of the big three. The differences to look for is rather than having a metal drive carriage (roller that pushes the wire) it will be a plastic. This is probably ok for the hobbyist, mine is a Lincoln copy. The most important thing to look at is who handles warranty repairs and parts for the unit you buy. If it breaks and you cant't get parts it stops your project and that sucks large.