Hi Erik,

Absolutely SMT soldering is much easier, both to learn and to do, than manual PWB drilling. And regarding something in another post, 0 Ohm resistors are a tried and true way to solve routing problems.

Now here's where the SMT soldering will come back to bite you. The pitch on many of these parts have become so small that you simply can't put the part on the board without specialized equipment.

Recently I converted a project over to USB with SiLabs CP2102 USB to UART Bridge. The chip only comes in what they call the MLP-28 package. It's a 5 mm x 5 mm square package, with 28 solder pads (not pins) around the perimeter (7 per side). The land pattern (on the PWB) has 12 mil pads with 8 mil spaces beteen them. Using tweezers and a magnifier (as I otherwise do) I simply could not place the part without smearing the solder paste enough to cause solder bridges. I had no choice but to buy a fine pitch placement unit with vision in order to put the part on the board.

Still, there are plenty of SMT parts that don't require special equipment. Even down to a 0.050" pitch, parts can be placed and soldered with an iron and a spool of thin solder. And yes, it is absolutely worth doing, if for no other reason than just to save having to drill as many holes.