Picking a New Fishfinder??

[ozzgood2001]

So i plan to outfit a "newer" boat with some new electronics. i currently have a garmin rino 120 i will prolly hookup on a ram mount for my gps needs but am really not excited cause of the small screen. i like the price of the eagle products, and if i go this route will stick with a fishmark 480 (239.99) with speed and temp. but im really debating going up to a eagle fishelite 480 sonar/gps mapping. for (449.99) finances may make me wait on a sonar/gps unit. i guess for how much i use the actual gps the rino/finder setup might be the cheaper route. heres my question anyone seen anything that might let my rino communicate with the finder or do they need to? or am i crazy :) .... looked at all garmin finders no such thing i can see but i guess why would they need to communicate what would be an advantage of having it all in one? or any other suggestions welcome prolly 2 months till i pull the trigger on a new finder anyhow. Thanks a bunch!

[FishTales]

Chad,
I have two boats, one is a 1986 Crestliner, outfitted years ago with depth finder and LoranC, the other is a 2000 Tracker with Lowrance 350A GPS/Fishfinder combo.
I have not had any problems with either setup, but if I had to do it again, I would not have the 350A,
If you have separate units and one takes a crap, it's easier to replace one instead of the combo units. If you have to send a combo unit in for repair, you won't have use of either part till its returned.
Another thing to think about is: You might like a Garmin GPS, but prefer Lowrance/Eagle brand of fishfinder, we don't even have to talk about the price for a combo unit.
Rich

[fish eater]

IMO, I'm not crazy about the combo units. Mostly because of what the previous poster said. But also, I just like the good old fashioned larger screen of a fishfinder. I need to be able to see my fishfinder screen from any postion in the boat. Most of the combo units take away that ability. And like the other guy said, I also like the Garmin Gps, but the Lowrance (the best on the market IMO) fishfinder, why not keep them seperate and enjoy the best of both worlds? .02:)

[kroppe]

Chad, as we discussed on the campfire I would go with a dual freq. unit with speed+temp. I have the Eagle SeaDucer 320DF which sells for about $200. For a few more $$ the SeaDucer 480DF gives you more screen resolution. Haven't had any problems with my 320DF, works great trolling downriggers, you can see the cannonballs using the split frequency feature on the screen.