Hi Poppy,
There are a lot of competitive receivers available today with loads of features which is common to most of them. You can refer to countless reviews and youtube videos for any information on performance etc. Strong brands are Denon / Pioneer / Yamaha etc who boast of power and supposed performance..on the other hand there is Marantz which does have appropriate options...slim series AVR NR series which looks decent, has about 50w RMS per channel and performs well on satellites, floor speakers as well as bookshelfs which are upto 150w pc.
Hifi Mart has the NR1504 + Boston Acoustic Soundware XS 5.1 for 51k odd...you will have to spend on good Speaker OFC wires, HDMI, subwoofer cables, Blu Ray player etc. If you don't want the Boston cube speakers which are any day better than Bose Acousticmass, you can settle for some decent bookshelfs and front towers...
Remember it depends what appeals to your choice in terms of performance, looks, budget and style.
All the best..hope this helps and congratulations