I pulled the trigger and purchased the Siglent SDS1204X-E for a little north of 700 UDS with discount. Found out that the unit is back ordered and won't be shipped for at least a month. Now I doubt myself again and wonder if I should downgrade to the Rigol DS1054Z.
Since it's just for hobby I don't need the oscilloscope right now, so waiting is OK. This would be my first oscilloscope although I did get to play with some in the past. Yes, it means that I'm not quite sure what I'd really need (2ch vs 4ch, bandwidth, sampling rate, etc). I expect my usage to be with electronic projects in amateur radio and arduino area along with some just curious educational tests and [pipe dream] some trouble shooting and repair. Yes, that still doesn't tell much what I might "need".
I enjoy quality and useful equipment. For example I purchased an $600 antenna analyzer (RigExpert AA-600) and never looked back at the price because it's such a joy to use. That said, while the SDS1204X-E doesn't make me starve it is a good junk of my savings (i.e. money doesn't grow on trees for me either).
The major difference that I identified between the SDS1204X-E and DS1054Z are:
* 200Mhz vs 50Mhz (100Mhz hacked)
* 1GSA/s vs 500MSa/s 2ch (500MSa/s vs 250MSa/s 4ch)
* 100,000 vs 30,000 wfms/s
* 14M vs 28M point memory depth* 256 vs 64 levels intensity grading
* Rigol requires hacking for the higher bandwidth, not sure what that means with warranty, etc.
I know, ultimately I have to make the decision and I have been reading way to much opinions on this forum (although most are between the DS1054Z and SDS1202X-E). Should I just stick with my decision and wait for the Siglent or am I being really stupid not to get the Rigol and hack?