i got the asus a7 and i like the ability to plug in 4 drives all as master because of the ata100. I'm sorry they had to cut the two extra channels... They integrated alot on this board, which is a step away from the A7 which had very little... This may be for OEMs but i don't know why an OEM would want integrated sound unless the sound was mad good. No company is going to make a low end DDR machine in the next couple months so i don't see why they would put in all the integrated stuff. The integrated nic is a good idea though, frees a PCI slot.