I struggled with that decision a while back, I bit the bullet and got the ipilot LINK and upgraded to a Helix 8 Mega SI+ to go with it. No regrets!

I am very GLAD I did that. I love it how the depth finder shows your autopilot heading on the screen while trolling cranks, I can fine tune my course to make sure I cruise right beside a marked brush pile instead of ending up going through it. I also like the ability to control the trolling motor with the depth finder, just in case I happen to forget my remote.

I'm still learning how to use all the features, just last weekend I played with the "circle" feature where you can set the trolling motor to circle a spot at a specified distance - that's a super handy feature if you bass fish too and want to circle the sweet spot on a main lake ledge.

I believe the LINK is one of those things that if you don't have it, you'll never know what you are missing and life will go on just fine....but if you do have it you'll absolutely love it.