Any of you using this yet?

I'm looking into them. 

I'm looking at the Huminbird 898 and Lowrance HDX7 combo. 

Whats your thoughts?

When I was at bass pro comparing them.  The Lowrance looked like a better unit and cheaper to expand and upgrade. 

Yes I am running Low hds 8 units and have been for over a year.  I really like mine and would feel lost without them.  I run down imaging and chart all the time on the bow unit as I like it better than 2 d sonar.

There are some good deals out there on generation 1 hds units with rebates.  The 8 and 10 have lots more features than the 7 and they will let you have 4 screens up at a time.  It is incredibly cool to run a bluff using all 4 channels and recording them on a card.  Then pull off and run the recording with the simulator.  You can see cover and structure and mark wpts which will show up on your map.  You can also see the differences between 2d and down while you are viewing the recording.

Here is one example of the good features of down and side.  Yesterday BigT and I were fishing in Flat Creek for specs.  I had been going down there and catching them from brush piles.  They weren't there so we caught them elsewhere.

Anyway on the way out of there we were moving slowly past several boats fishing.  I put the unit on down scan and side scan with it looking 120' both left and right.  I saw 2 nice brush piles on the left hand side of the scan that I had never seen before.  Now those babies are on my unit forever and I'll hit them next time down.

If you make the plunge, check out BOE Marine.  I saved several hundred on an hds8 over BPS.

I have done all of my own installs from the very first unit I ever owned.

There is not much to it. (Even a Caveman can handle the job.)

What unit do you have on your current boat?

If you go Low and have some impt wpts you will be able to put them on a card and load them up.