Well yea, most of the set ~1000 are gonna be not so great...sets under 600...well yea, the hardware is crap. If you're in that budget range though and wanting one, I'd recommend going used. Sometimes school'll have an electric set you'll be able to get cheap.
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there's a start though for ya, and just quickly looking at em...in your range, the simmons sd7k and alesis dm5.
We have a yamaha one at school which is nice and it comes with quite a few preset samples and making your own through midi and/or just on the device itself is decently simple.