What is different between all these boards?

[Altera_Forum]

Hello: 

I'm study on FPGA boards, in the beginning, I bought Cyclone IV board, then i"m amazed about the numbers of FPGA boards that available, same model but different price one is 199$ and the other 6,999$ !! why are all these difference? and how to decide to buy a general purpose board lets say ($300 - $500)? thanks

[Altera_Forum]

It will be interfaces expensive boards tend to be the top end stratix devices with 8x pcie. Cheaper boards may not have pcie at all. 

 Also check other specs

[Altera_Forum]

and your suggestion for all-in -one board that i can use for long time?

[Altera_Forum]

It depend immensely on what your design goal with the FPGA is. What is the use case?

[Altera_Forum]

I'm still student, but after that what is the key points for choose what board?

[Altera_Forum]

Well, I like this Cyclone V kit for learning and experimenting with FPGA. It has a low entry price. 

 http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=163&no=941  This kit also contains a dual-core ARM CPU, but you don't have to use/activate it to be able to use the FPGA.

[Altera_Forum]

thank you very much

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Hello: I'm study on FPGA boards, in the beginning, I bought Cyclone IV board, then i"m amazed about the numbers of FPGA boards that available, same model but different price one is 199$ and the other 6,999$ !! why are all these difference? and how to decide to buy a general purpose board lets say ($300 - $500)? thanks  --- Quote End ---    Hi,   The different price are mainly on the type of the FPGA and the other features on the board.  If you want a Cyclone IV board, here is some information for your reference. For beginners or students, it’ll suggest taking de0-nano (http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=139&no=593) into your consideration as its features and the price will be more suitable for beginners. If you would like to do more or learn more, then de2-115 (http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=139&no=502) would be a nice option, too.   Moreover, de0-cv (http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=13&no=921&partno=2) will also be a good fit for beginners, though it’s Cyclone V.   Still, it’ll depend on your needs to choose the boards.   Let me know if you have any question. Thanks. Mavis from Terasic.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi wst170, 

 The Terasic boards are all very nice. They come with schematics, and the boards have lots of features. The DE0-nano is a nice low-cost simple board to get started. The DE-series of boards are all pretty nice too.  Have you thought of a project you'd like to implement? If not, think of one, figure out what kind of I/O you think you will need, and then ask which board to buy.  Some of Terasic's more recent boards have Arduino shield headers, so they might be a good option if you want to interface to the real-world.  Cheers, Dave