Advice needed in deciding a quartz worktop for the kitchen (Silestone vs Silkstone)

[cadencer1]

I am in a mission to find a quartz worktop for our new kitchen as mrs sets her eyes on the marble-effect quartz. The size of the worktop will be approximately 6 square meters.

The Silestone Lyra looks nice, but the quotation we've got is £4500 which is really stretching our limit. Someone has recomended Silkstone Angelo which is a cheap alternative to Silestone. For the same size, silkstone only costs about £3300. It also has the marble effect.

The Silestone is apparently a much bigger and famous brand (they probably spend lost of money sponsoring F1, etc). But in terms of quality, does anyone know whether there is any difference between Silestone quartz and non-silestone quartz? Has anyone had any experience with Silkstone? Any general comments about Silestone or non-Silestone quartz will also be appreciated.

I had this issue a couple of years ago - I am sure that others will have different opinions but I was told by 2 or 3 different suppliers of quartz that there was very little difference between different brands of quartz in terms of strength, properties etc. The price difference is often down to design - so the bigger / more realistic the marble effect, then the dearer it is.

I ended up with Compaq quartz which I was very impressed with. Using the same quartz provider this time who has given me various options and the differential again is (mainly) due to design and how it looks.