Well I have to give up and call Garmin...after being on hold for about 10', I talked to this nice guy and yeah my options are 2, buy the DVD or the preloaded micro SD cards (same detailed maps), with the cards I do'n need to download anything I just plug them and I'm ready...with the DVD topo map software I need to buy an additional SD card (the more meory the better!) and then download the maps to the card..the tech guy said that I can fit about a 1/3 of the US in the 2 GB card...I think that is enough

I think the DVD and the extra SD card for maps storage have more flexibility, so I'm going to do jus that...thanks for the comments!!