Looking at the website, looks like a copy and has 30 pins the flow code drop down menu's show 32 pins ?
Also there is somthing mentioned about the USB chip swapped for a cheaper CH340 USB IC - would this affect programming or would i be better of using ICSP header ?
Provided it has a genuine AVR on it I think it should work fine. The bootloader is usually the same as it's open source and so programming should work as is with a genuine Arduino. You may need to install USB drivers for the USB to Serial chip but these should be easily available from Google. Personally I've had a lot of success with the very low cost Chinese type Arduino clones.
The only thing different you need to do when using Arduinos from say PICs is to set the COM port to the device within the project options.
I use one of them a lot of the time and I know of other forum members that use one as well.
They work really well.
Just remember that it could use one of two addresses.
Either 0x3F (63) - Like mine
or 0X27 (39)
You can test with a sniffer
You won't need pull-ups as they are included on the PCB.