Best Development Board to cut my teeth / kick the wheels

Lots of the lower-cost development kits are good for learning, eg., the Terasic DE0-nano

https://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?no=593

The Cyclone IV GX Starter kit is cheaper than the ones you mention, but then again its got a small device.

http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-cyclone-iv-starter.html

The Terasic SoC kit looks tempting ... it says the FPGA has transceivers and the kit has an HSMC connector (which is where they would route) ...

https://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=167&no=816&partno=1

What you need to do is figure out one specific application you want to try, and then hypothetically consider that you have the development kit. Download and install the support software for that kit, and see if your design will work in it.

What sort of transceiver development were you going to look at? Some kits have HSMC connectors, others have FMC connectors, and yet others have PCIe edge connectors. If you want to gain access to the transceivers on an SMA connector, then some kits have that too, while others you will need to buy an adapter.

Take a look at the kits again, come back with some specific options, and ideas about applications, and forum readers will give you their feedback.

Have fun!

Cheers,

Dave

In addition to the Terasic boards, the Arrow BeMicro boards are cheap and good enough for your typical "hello world" of one shape or another.

The BeMicro SDK for $80 is big enough to host a NIOS system and includes Ethernet. The newer $50 BeMicro CV trades the Ethernet PHY for more I/O pins instead.

http://www.arrownac.com/solutions/bemicro-sdk/

http://components-asiapac.arrow.com/en/campaign/altera-bemicro-cv-fpga-development-kit/