I am new to PIC BasicPro and have it doing a few things (blinking the LED mainly) on a 16F84. I am wanting to move to a bigger processor next and feel the 16F877 should be my next stepping stone.

Now I need a prototype board to do my testing on. There seems to be a few different models out there and I need some advice on solutions. Going through ebay I see a number of them available. They include
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2559346971
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2564791435

Of the two, I prefer the second model as I can build it up myself and I think it has a bit more space.

Once I get the prototype board, my next purchase will be my own programmer (as opposed to borrowing the one from school). There is a very simple one at
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2562640833

MELabs now has a serial version of their programmer out too. There is yet another one on ebay at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2564719079
and it has included with it a 40pin adapter and an incircuit adapter for my 16F84 chip.

Has anyone experience with any of these items?

Sean