Recently upgraded my boat, in the market for new electronics... Would like to keep it under 1000 or be close to it... What brands, features are you guys into? What's a necessity, etc?

I just up graded to a Garmin 840xs ($1500) very easy to use, and Garmin g2 fishing maps are really nice when u r spot hopping.
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Garmin really seams to be taking off these past couple of years. I have several friends with them and they are all extremely happy. I just added a Raymarine Dragonfly as a back up unit and I am super happy with it. The definition on the Downscan is incredible (for the money).

Garmin 741xs new this spring luv it,,, have seen it for 1300 on sale west marine

Garmin is the way to go in a GPS, I would not consider anything else.

Hey just my humble opinion, but to go out and spend $1500 on a latest/greatest GPS is throwing $$ away, especially if you are on a budget.

A decent 10 year old model for < $200 on ebay, and by that I mean anything that supports WAAS and the original bluecharts, is just as good for navigation in all practical terms as a brand new one. Color even doesn't buy you any benefit in a GPS unless you are going to use the display for radar or sonar.

What are you upgrading from? My recommendation is to go on ebay, type in "Garmin Marine GPS" and look through the results for something that meets your criteria that is a model 2-5 years old. Usually you can find really nice stuff refurb with a warranty for like 25% of the cost of new.

Jon

I use a Garmin 546 for my GPS and a Garmin 300C for my depth/FF along with a Garmin GDL40 Weather interface. They are all hooked together using a NMEA 2000 network.
I have the GPS and the depth/FF separate as I didn't want to rely on one unit.

Garmin GPS / Furano >sounder

For fishing the bay/inshore.... I have and old furono as a back up. I use a $200 android tablet and either Navionics or Marine Navigator. I prefer the large touchscreen on the tablet and it allow use to use raster charts which for my piss poor eyes are much better than vector charts on most dedicated chartplotters.

Not what I would use offshore for obvious safety issues.

Garmin GPS / Furano >sounder

That's my combo.... running a 585 w1k ducer
Garmin has it going on in the chart plotters but furuno is top dog in the sounders....my.02
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Ok... The boat has a garmin 182C plotter on it now which I intend to keep on it... Just seemed like the combo was the way to go, and would give me a back up if something was to happen... I guess I should have been more specific, it's more for the sounder aspect I'm upgrading... If it makes more sense to keep them separate, that's fine... I'm impressed with what the garmin looks like in the store for a sounder, but the demo obviously isn't real life... And the lowrance seems to be pretty good, but I was more looking for what guys are using and actually have experience on it...
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Garmin, garmin, garmin. They are the most user friendly, product support is outstanding, and the quality is top notch. With the recent introduction of down and side imaging, there's no reason to look at anything else (if you require that feature). For $1000 you can get the Echomap 70s, which has charts, sounder, and antenna built in. You need to purchase the 'ducer separately but a transom mount will run you only 70 beans. This thing is plug and play, man.
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Garmin GPS / Furano >sounder

X2 X2 X2

Ok... The boat has a garmin 182C plotter on it now which I intend to keep on it... Just seemed like the combo was the way to go, and would give me a back up if something was to happen... I guess I should have been more specific, it's more for the sounder aspect I'm upgrading... If it makes more sense to keep them separate, that's fine... I'm impressed with what the garmin looks like in the store for a sounder, but the demo obviously isn't real life... And the lowrance seems to be pretty good, but I was more looking for what guys are using and actually have experience on it...
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I have garmin and lowrance on my boat. I use the garmin for charts and the lowrance for sounder. Side by side the garmin does not mark fish and bait as well as the lowrance, and garmin charts are much better.
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I have garmin and lowrance on my boat. I use the garmin for charts and the lowrance for sounder. Side by side the garmin does not mark fish and bait as well as the lowrance, and garmin charts are much better.
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The garmin I have has the charts in it and from what I saw the other day, I believe it would work fine for mapping... But when I saw the displays of the garmin in the store, the screen looked great, but anything can look great simulated.. I am not looking to cheap out by any means, but sometimes I get too caught up in prices... I just really need to be able to distinguish bait from target fish, and don't wanna cut myself short to save a few hundred dollars... Can't seem to find a place with furuno on display in a store, and from this thread seems to be a popular choice... I'm not entirely impressed with raymarines machines. Lowrance seemed to have a decent display in the store also, but again, want to go more on peoples experiences other than how a pre loaded video looks.
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http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/thefishingfreak/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2014-07-14-22-17-02_zpss77fwcay.png (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/thefishingfreak/media/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2014-07-14-22-17-02_zpss77fwcay.png.html)
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http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/thefishingfreak/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2014-07-14-22-17-02_zpss77fwcay.png (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/thefishingfreak/media/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2014-07-14-22-17-02_zpss77fwcay.png.html)
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That is the unit I have, but its not the latest. Still a powerful little sucka. You would want the G2 chip for all the options. I think is a couple of hundred $$$ more.
Got mine set up with fuel management sensor, XM SAT weather and XM radio.. Even communicates with my furuno FF to share info.

Never gave me a spec of trouble.

That is the 545 not 545s so no transducer but you can get transducers on Amazon for like $55. I just had to buy a replacement one. I use the 545s for both mapping/FF plus a Garmin Echo 550c for FF. The "reel" fish show up on both! :)

That is the 545 not 545s so no transducer but you can get transducers on Amazon for like $55. I just had to buy a replacement one. I use the 545s for both mapping/FF plus a Garmin Echo 550c for FF. The "reel" fish show up on both! :)

What Phil means is the 545 does not have sonar capability, only the 545s does, then you buy the transducer for it.

Right?

I think the 545 & 545s both accept the transducer, the 545s comes with the transducer in the box.

THIS IS WRONG: the 545 will NOT accept the sonar/transducer

I think the 545 & 545s both accept the transducer, the 545s comes with the transducer in the box.
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I may be wrong but I do not think the 545 accepts a transducer. I have the 546 and it doesn't. I would have had to buy the 546s to be able to use the transducer.
You can go to the Garmin site and get the actual specs for the 545 and 545s.