There is a school of thought that a combo unit is not the way to go. Two reasons. If one goes down, they're both down. Also switching back and forth from a full screen or viewing a smaller split screen turns some folks off as well. Just my big fat opinion.

I forgot one other thing. In the lower end combo units, usually something gets compromised. It seems like the FF component is the usual victim. Closely look at the FF's performance of any low end combo unit.

I am in the process of outfitting my boat right now and will be able to put nice a nice garmin FF, garmin gps/plotter and a vhf with dsc for under a grand. If you have the room for multiple components I would suggest it.

Birdnest