DIY Microcontrollers Learning Kit

Pros: Perfect if you want to understand more about arduino inner working. This is all you need to assemble your own arduino. This is also useful if you want to implement a project using arduino, you don't need all the components a real arduino has if you don't want to make more modifications in your project.

Cons: No manual, you must search the internet if want to know how to assemble it. And I think the breadboard is not really necessary.

Other: Cheaper alternative to an assembled arduino. I recommend buying this as your second arduino. Or if you want to implement a fixed project. You may want to get sku104322 in order to help you programming it.

Pros: Has parts for building a breadboard Arduino, and comes in a neat crush-resistant plastic box (survived shipping). After I burned a bootloader into the ATmega328P-PU microcontroller, and replaced a bad 16 MHz crystal that came with the kit, I was able to build a working breadboard Arduino (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Standalone). I then learned how critical the reset timing can be when uploading sketches, unless you use an automatic RTS-capacitor-reset circuit (see my comments in the "Other Thoughts" section).

Cons: No manual, no jumpers, and my kit came with a bad 16 MHz crystal. The ATmega328P-PU comes unprogrammed, so I got to learn how to use ArduinoISP to burn a bootloader into it (http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP). This kit is not for beginners without help.

Other: I learned a lot. However, as stated above, this kit is not for beginners without help; it may be useful in a classroom. This kit could be useful for prototyping a standalone Arduino-based controller design. However, this kit is not the cheapest way to own an Arduino, since prebuilt Arduinos (SKU 150108, for example) cost less than this kit plus an FTDI Basic upload module.