thanks a lot for the feedback guys...great link for the HDS. While it may take me a little while to recover from this purchase and start looking at Navionics chips, I did browse the Navionics website and a few retailer sites and there appear to be several choices of navionics chips available with options like:
-entire US vs just East (I only need northeast)
-2D vs 3d
-Gold vs platinum

I'd like opinions on which card you use and if you feel upgrading gold to platinum or 2d vs 3d is worth it...which chip would you buy for your HDS and why?

I want to make an informed choice from consumers not bite on the manufacturers "pitch".