Sup Nikon fan boyssss =)

Hey, I just tested my friend's newly bought D5100. I really love the vari-angle monitor but it's kinda fragile to me. It feels like it will break off anytime.

Other than this, I can feel the body is really compact and light even with a recording ability comparing to D3100. The bad thing, I don't like the shutter sound =(

That's all.

Most of the new camera they have a more quieter and "compressed" shutter sound. But it won't affect your photo shoot.

In my opinion, if you are getting your first DSLR, you can try the D5100 or D3100. I believe the price of D3100 will be lower than D5100. =)

Worth for money, kinda. Light weight, vari-angle monitor and decent sensor. But I wouldn't say it's the best for Entry-level camera

Personal opinion:
If you're really looking into DSLR, then it's worth, but then, if you're getting serious, you might want to consider a body with more controls. And you will need to start "investing" later on.

If you're looking for a good camera which have good performance like a DSLR, simple and easy to use, less "problems", less "maintenance", less investment or little. You might want to consider something else, such as those current mirrorless maybe?
Example:
DSLR usage is different with normal digital camera/point and shoot; You use a viewfinder, which gives a totally different feel and you won't see the effect until you review the picture in your LCD and you notice, oh DARK, or oh too bright. With digital camera, you use the LCD and the settings you adjust, changes in real time so you can see roughly how the image will turn out later.
When using DSLR in Live View mode, it kind of defeat the purpose and you might notice the performance is worst than many high end digital camera. Then when you're looking to upgrade the lens, you will see the "investment" you need to do.

If you take a look at the latest Panasonic G3 preview video, you will notice how good the performance is and easy to use. There's touch focus feature; You can even adjust the focus point size, and so on; When you focus an area, it will zoom it to let you see whhether the image is in focus; The auto-focus speed is also fast, the video even demo their touch-focus-shoot process, means when you touch, it will focus and immediately capture the photo and the person do it in continuously touching different area.

Anyway, if you're really looking into DSLR, then kindly ignore my comments; The reason I share this is because there're people who buy DSLR for the wrong reasons only to find out they don't actually need a DSLR; They thought DSLR as a powerful camera, suppose to be work better in EVERY WAY, but not knowing about the differences and limitations.

I prefer the 1st link, with beech/black color and I love brow/gunmetal/orange color. I prefer more color rather than a black one, as I've seen a lot of my friends using 'non-black' Crumpler and I like them.. Too bad, budget constraint, cant afford 
If you have 3k, why not getting a D90?