I originally bought an Etrex H and ended up returning it a few days later, mostly because of the same USB issue you mentioned, but also because of difficulty entering coordinates manually.
I ended up going to a large local electronics store (won't mention the name, but it was an Awesome Purchase) and found a Legend H. The Legend H cost as much as the Etrex H would have if I had bought the cord (another $25), but has mapping, geocaching features, and I can manually enter a waypoint.
Of course, from personal experience, make sure you know how to enter a waypoint BEFORE going out the first time, especially if you are going out to find a puzzle cache with an easily annoyed significant other...