I used the Altera DE1 in my college EE class a few years ago and am interested in getting back into writing VHDL to help learn more about reverse engineering on a hardware level.

Should I go ahead and get the DE1-SoC since I already have experience with Quartus II or should I go for one of the Spartans (which I know nothing about). If I go with Altera is a DE2 worth the investment (it's 2x the price)?