cbmeeks wrote:
I've gotten much better at soldering small SMD parts and this has made me want to change gears and possibly make my SBC surface mount. You can save a lot of money by doing that.
Not only can you get some cost reduction from the devices themselves, your PCB ends up being more compact, which makes it less expensive as well. As a bonus, the more compact layout leads to shorter traces, which may make it easier to support higher clock rates. In other words, you are reaping the benefits that were first seen when SMD was introduced in the 1970s.