Bricks, Masonry, Asphalt and Concrete - Which concrete mixture for recovering basement floor?

OK, we ARE having a gutter system installed after all, so the basement water problem should be handled on the outside. Now, we need to level/recover the basement floor. There was old carpet and pad glued to the concrete and when we removed it, of course, the skimcoat laid by previous owners came up with the carpet. We have decided NOT to lay carpet until we know the water problem has been resolved. We want to lay a leveling coat of something, then just use area rugs in that room. PROBLEM: I keep hearing differing opinions on what compound to use to level the floor: vinyl cement/straight premixed concrete mix/trowlable floor leveller/mortar mix! Have done extensive research on my own and had decided that self-levelling Quikrete product sounded great, but nobody in town carries it. What should we use? Largest difference between surfaces on the floor are about 5/8 inch.

You guys seem to be the best source for "been there done that" opinions, so here I am!

I used floor leveler on part of my basement floor when I built my wife's art studio. I used a product called Level-Quik from Home Depot. It was in the flooring department, not with the rest of the concrete mixes. It is pretty expensive - a 25-lb bag is around $25 and only covers about 50 square feet to a depth of 1/8".

That said, the stuff is pretty easy to use. You'll need a paddle mixer and an electric 1/2" drill. I mixed up the bags one at a time in a couple of 5-gallon buckets and just poured the stuff on the floor. The directions say to use a gauged spreader but nobody had one so I didn't use a spreader at all. Just pour slowly and carefully and the stuff will seek its own level in 10 minutes or so.