Help deciding on/finding a fork

[setspeed]

I hang out exclusively in the pre 97 section of Retrobike, and know very little about bikes from late 90s to the current time.
A friend of mine is riding a 2005 Kona Blast, with some kind of spring Marzocchi fork on it. He's not happy that it isn't really adjustable, and wouldn't mind a new fork.
I have suggested changing to an air fork of some kind, maybe a Fox F100RLC or sofmething of that nature.
Can you suggest some appropriate forks? If he can get rebound, lockout and compression adjustment, that would be fantastic. And he doesn't really want to spend a lot of money - can he pick up anything decent for £50?
Finally, might he be better of looking for a more modern (ie 2010 onwards) low end fork? Would that perform better than an older one, for the same sort of price? He doesn't much care about period correctness, just how the bike rides.

 

[Siish]

Rockshox recon come with adjustment, dony know how much a set will cost though

 

[synchronicity]

For £50??
I doubt he will get much performance enhancement for that level of investment.

I'd go for a later-model lower-tier fork.

I went for a ~2014 Reba, and with some diy adjustments to the negative chamber volume, it's pretty plush I have to say (I was surprised).
Although I admit the compression adjustment is not great.

Previously I had a 2010 marz bomber.

 

[setspeed]

For £50??
I doubt he will get much performance enhancement for that level of investment.

I'd go for a later-model lower-tier fork.

I went for a ~2014 Reba, and with some diy adjustments to the negative chamber volume, it's pretty plush I have to say (I was surprised).
Although I admit the compression adjustment is not great.

Previously I had a 2010 marz bomber.

The thing is his bike's only worth about £100 I'd guess, so I don't want to advise him to sink loads of money into it. I was hoping that perhaps if I put a Wanted ad up, someone might have something hanging around they'd let go for not much cash. But I need to know what to look for.

 

[Siish]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/38556963...6xZTE5ETmu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
There are these recon sl's on ebay for £80

 

[Madmax1993]

Marzocchi MX Comps or EXR Pro.

2003 was a decent vintage, and I've owned a few of each for the following reasons:
They're air forks, not coil
They have 105mm travel (basically 100mm)
1 1/8" Straight steerer
V-brake and disk compatible (if running disks then the v-brake bosses unscrew very discreetly, unlike others)
Cheap to buy nowadays
That generation of marzocchi had a reputation for reliability and plushness, at the expense of a fair weight penalty.

The Mx comp was the made-in-Italy-fancier one, the exr was the made in Taiwan, OEM-specced-on-bikes kind of thing, with cheaper crown molding, but the EXR pro has the same gold stanchions as the Mx comp. IIRC EXR comps have the silver (cheaper) stanchions more like the MZ models. Avoid MZ as these were mostly coil sprung ones, probably what your friend has on the bike currently.

 

[setspeed]

Thanks everyone. I've reported back and he's decided he's changed his mind, and might be looking at getting a new(er) bike!