Need advice with a MSO

[pisoiu]

Hi all,
I know there are plenty of topics about this but my questions are somehow related to this precise moment in time, so I need a fresh opinion.
For my work I need a new scope, since the old one (100mhz 2 ch hantek) is not suitable for some of my problems.
Considering all technical parameters I need, MSO7000 series from Rigol would do the job, 4 analog+16 digital channels.
At this moment they have a promotion with 10% price drop and free options bundle, consisting of basically all serial decoders (can, i2c, spi, etc) and waveform generator.
I would need 500mhz bw, but unfortunately my pocket is tight right now and I must find...ehem..alternate solutions.
All their scopes from this series (100, 250, 350 and 500mhz bw) have the same hardware as far as I can see in their specs.
Question one is if these models can be hacked to 500mhz. I found other topics which says they can, but they are a bit old and maybe they removed the easy access to scope files.
Another question is if there are any other offers in the market with better value than this one. I know about siglent but those do not offer any included serial decoders (which costs a lot), and of course, Keysight, R&S and others like those are way out of my possibilities.
Thanks.

[tautech]

Another question is if there are any other offers in the market with better value than this one. I know about siglent but those do not offer any included serial decoders (which costs a lot), and of course, Keysight, R&S and others like those are way out of my possibilities.

All Siglent DSO's that offer decoding have I2C,SPI,UART, CAN and LIN decoding and trigger suites included for free.

[pisoiu]

You're right, my mistake. Only some requires license (CAN FD, Flexray) and LA is also optional, for SDS5000x series. For SDS2000X plus the decoders requires licenses. Am I wrong?

[tautech]

You're right, my mistake. Only some requires license (CAN FD, Flexray) and LA is also optional, for SDS5000x series. For SDS2000X plus the decoders requires licenses. Am I wrong?

SDS2000X Plus has I2C,SPI,UART, CAN and LIN decoding free as does all Siglent DSO's that offer decodes.

Further info:
SDS5000X has individual vertical controls.
SDS2000X Plus has a shared vertical control.
Both 10" touch display.
They both use the same SPL2016 MSO probe set however LA license for MSO is more expensive for SDS5000X. Don't ask me why, I have asked Siglent to align the pricing better.

But, you can have SDS2104X Plus for $1400 basic unit however SDS5304X is $3569 basic unit.
Either can be enhanced to 500 MHz however SDS2000X Plus only permits the use of 2 channels at fast timebase settings and defaults to 350 MHz when 3 or more channels are active.

[ozkarah]

SDS5000X has individual vertical controls.

Sorry for asking. What is individual vertical control?

[Martin72]

Every channel got it´s dedicated vertical position knob, instead one for all.