New here! Questions about 60csx and more

[tdt_trevor]

Hey everyone! I've been pretty avid about the outdoors my entire life. I recently decided to get myself a GPS, which also sparked my interest in geocaching. I've been poking my head around here for the past few days and I hear a lot of praise for the Garmin GPSMap 60Csx. I've just about got my heart set on it. It's got a lot of features that have me pretty excited, and it's just within my price range. I've done some research online about pricing and the best price I found (excluding several shady looking sites I'd rather not trust with a few hundred bucks) was through Amazon.com. Just about $300 with free shipping, sounds like a great deal to me. I figured I'd ask here if anyone has seen any better deals floating around, and also to make sure I am indeed looking at the correct product:

60Csx @ Amazon

 

Another question I had was about the Topo 2008 maps sold by Garmin, do they show trails on the maps? If so, is it likely to have most if not all of the trails I would find in physical topo map books?

 

Thanks in advance for any help and/or advice you guys might be able to give me!

[+Brassine Family]

if you are looking a used but not abused. try here. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=13

 

there are alot of items and most sellers accept paypal, so you would be kinda safe in that aspect.

[+StarBrand]

That is a pretty good deal and an excellent unit.

[+StarBrand]

You can check out the detail on the topo maps for yourself at: http://www.garmin.com/cgi-bin/mapgen/webma...mp;k=1&sc=1

[+LeonW]

Best GPS'r yet IMHO. Great price! Get a 2Gig.Byte Micro SD card for it if needed.

[ao318]

One thing to remember when purchasing a Garmin product is to purchase from an authoized seller, like Amazon. If you buy from ebay or some other auction places, Garmin will not honor the warranty. You will need to have an actual store receipt, not just the bid receipt.

 

I have both TOPO and City Navigator. TOPO does have a lot of the trails. Occasionally, not often, I do go to a place that does not have the trails loaded into TOPO. Another thing is that TOPO does not have auto routing, a feature that enables you to use the GPS as an auto GPS for driving around. You would either need to have a GPS specifically for your vehicle or purchase the City Navigator software.

[+vwaldoguy]

Just purchased a new 60csx last week. It's a great little unit, I'm sure you'd be pleased. I bought a bundled package that came with the Topo 2008 software. It's handy to show more detail, including streams and lakes too. I also purchased the City Navigator 2009 maps so I could use it for auto-routing in the car. I believe GPS city has it for $300 even also. I added a 2gb microSD card, a car adapter and Ram mount, and a Zagg invisible shield. It's a nice setup!

[+Prime Suspect]

$300 is consistent with most reputable on-line dealers. But they're generally not going to match the free shipping.

Edited October 15, 2008 by Prime Suspect

[tdt_trevor]

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

You can check out the detail on the topo maps for yourself at: http://www.garmin.com/cgi-bin/mapgen/webma...mp;k=1&sc=1

Thanks for this link especially. The maps look pretty good.

Out of curiosity, if there were a trail or small road that isn't on the map, what are my options? Can I traverse it and have the GPS record my route and save it? Mapping things out for myself could almost be a kind of adventure.

 

Also, the talk about microSD cards got me thinking; would it be best to buy one with an exceptionally fast read/write speed, or does that not drastically affect the speed of the unit overall? Not saying I plan on buying a cheap or slow one, but should I be looking for top-of-the-line?

 

Thanks again my friends.

[+briansnat]

ut of curiosity, if there were a trail or small road that isn't on the map, what are my options? Can I traverse it and have the GPS record my route and save it?

 

Yes. I know people who have used their GPS to map entire trail systems. There is a box you check after you save a track asking you if you always want it displayed on the map.

[HJMSTL]

 

Also, the talk about microSD cards got me thinking; would it be best to buy one with an exceptionally fast read/write speed, or does that not drastically affect the speed of the unit overall? Not saying I plan on buying a cheap or slow one, but should I be looking for top-of-the-line?

 

Thanks again my friends.

 

I'm just starting out and I am in the market for a 60CSx too... it seems to be the tried and true choice. The gorgeous screens on the newer Colorado and Oregon models are tempting because I love the eye candy, but I've heard a lot of inconsistent things about those while the 60CSx is very well respected.

 

In my research of all these units I have found that you will want to buy a microSD card that is no larger than 2GB and that is not the high speed Ultra line made by Sandisk. Garmin states the largest microSD card that the 60CSx will take is a 2GB card (I emailed them about this to confirm), because the larger cards are a different format (SDHC, Secure Digital High Capacity) and can/do have compatibility problems with older devices that were not designed specifically for SDHC cards. As for not buying a Sandisk Ultra card, that is just word of mouth advice that I have read on many, many forums.

 

Hope that helps!