ryanot1

I am a little confused and hope someone can clear the water for me.
My "new to me" boat came with a Northstar M84. I got it out off Florida, so it only had the charts/maps for East coast.
It only shows a loose interpretation of the Lake of the Ozarks. Half the time I'm cruising on land!
I see that it needs/takes C-Map SD Max cards, and the southern lakes version.
Question: I see I can source them from multiple dealers. However, there is a wide price range...$150-$800.
Does anyone know why? Which one is needed? I'm not all that impressed with the graphics on it, so I am teetering on buying a newer Garmin 5208, or similar. That decision will hinge on how much I have to spend to make the M84 usable on LOTO.
Any guidance is much appreciated.
Thanks!

Lucky1456

iTrader: (1)

I can tell you that the Garmin is a whole lot easier to use on all of its operations including using the C Card maps. I think Garmin calls it the Blue Water Map card. I bought extra maps for mine when I got it just to make sure I had more then I needed. I liked and bought the 720 S with the sonar. I have a Fountain Fever so my space is limited and the 7.5 inch screen worked out for me. Also Lavorsi sells attachments like the colored bezels for my model. You have to decide on the space you have to work with but I will tell you the bigger the screen the better. Good luck with it. Sell your North Star on swap shop maybe. Oh by the way I went on Garmin site tonight looking for an attachment for mine and they are offering a pretty big rebate right now. They also have updated the 720 S to like 740 now too. You know technology doesn't last long the next new thing is on the way already.

ryanot1

I wanted to follow up on my findings.
I ended up getting the "MAXLakesSouth" which included Missouri lakes for around $140 from waypoints dot com.
While it certainly shows the lake in good detail, I am not overly impressed. Maybe I am just expecting too much from 5+ year old tech.
The new stuff just has much better graphics. I will probably keep it for a while before i blow $4k on a new one.
Thanks for your replies and PM's.

Pwraddr

I have an M84 also and got the card.....I think it is fine. As you say, is there better, of course, it is electronics technology so it improves everyday. In the end, it does what I need.