Of the older varios I loved the Borgelt B50. Borgelt was a great vario for the time. Not sure what happened that they didn't make the transition over the last few years to the modern systems. B50 is still one of the best values for a low cost panel, about $500 to $600 and a PDA/PNA and it will work nearly as we'll as the new systems.

The ClearNav, V7 and Butterfly are all very impressive. The 302 is a good system (vario, altimeter, computer and logger in one) and could be even better with a software update.