I've had my Milwaukee chop saw for almost 15 years now. It's cut more steel than all the garage fabricators here combined probably. I've replaced the brushes in it twice now, but that's the only issues I've had with it.
The cheap band saws aren't worth the money in my opinion. They are better at some things and leave a cleaner cut. If you were lookin to spend more than $1k I'd say look into a good used band saw.
