I am doing this project using a PIC24EP32GP202 in a DIP package.

I found myself short of pins and I am thinking to use a bigger brother in a SMD package. Using this PIC in DIP package i found out that is very sensible to the layout, for example it does not work on a bread board because the connections to decoupling capacitors are too long, it keeps resetting, if it mounted in a socket with all the connections soldered on a prototyping board it works fine.

This PIC runs at 140 Mhz using a PLL and a quartz of 8Mhz (in my case)

I would like to try the SMD version with more pins and use an adapter to develop the project but I worry about the following points:

Will the length of the connections to the decoupling capacitors be too long and have the same problems i found using the bread board?

As the length between the PIC pins and the quartz will be too long, can I use an external oscillator and supply the signal at logic level to the PIC to overcome the distance problem? In this case I will use a 12 Mhz oscillator and obtain 140 Mhz using the internal PLL.

Any suggestion is very appreciated.