Advice on the Lowrance Elite 5

[Bassn Blvd]

I received this unit as a gift.  Is this a good unit or should I sell it and upgrade to the SI model?

http://www.basspro.com/Lowrance-Elite5-Fishfinder/GPS-Chartplotter/product/10216573/-1665332#prodDescription

[R520dvx]

Depends on what you want to do with it ... it's a good unit, but will not accept side scan and will not network. The answer to you questions dependson what your future plans are.

[Sam]

I saw a Lowrance sidescan demonstration at Green Top.

Really impressive.

I am saving to get one in the future.

Take R520's advice and consider the alternative. 

[Bassn Blvd]

Thanks for the advice.

I would like to have overall better bottom, structure and fish identification. I also need GPS. I don't fish anywhere other than S. Florida, particularly my own county, so I don't need lake maps. I would also like for what I'm seeing on the screen to be real time and not something I passed over 10 yards back.

When you say "networking" do you mean downloading info from another unit?

[KU_Bassmaster.]

If it were me and it was exchangeable (?) , I would definitely put down another $100 or so and get the HDS 5 and have the option to add the side and down scan later on if you wanted.

[Wayne P.]

Bassn Blvd, your statement "I would also like for what I'm seeing on the screen to be real time and not something I passed over 10 yards back." is contrary to what LCR sonar units are about.

Sonar units are not video cameras and monitors. The only real time display you will ever see with a LCR unit is the first column of vertical pixels on the right side of the display. EVERYTHING to the left of that column of pixels is HISTORY. The age of that displayed history depends on how far you have traveled and what the screen scroll speed setting is. Some units have RTS as a side bar on the sonar view and some have a mock flasher view, but if you need to be familar with how to interpret those types of displays.

The only other way to not have history on the display is to not move and not have anything in the water column moving.

[SeanW]

Id get a HDS 5 instead. That said I just ordered a Hummingbird 798SI from Cabelas for $699 which I think is the best buy right now. Lowrance offered me a 5x for some graphs that kept breaking when I hit a boat wake(at a discount). I decided Id rather spend the money on something Id rather have.  The HDS is on my bow, the 798 will go on the console.