Originally, the A7V included onboard audio via Cirrus Logic's CS4299 SoundFusion audio codec that offers a 20-bit DAC and 18-bit ADC along with four analog stereo inputs. This seems to be an option now, since our A7V did not include the necessary audio connectors. If integrated sound is a concern, however, you are likely not in the market for a high-end board and would be better served by a simpler design, such as Gigabyte's 7ZX.

One of the problems we find with boards similar to the 7ZX is their lack of USB headers, which Gigabyte could have provided. On the other hand, ASUS has always been consistent in taking advantage of the features provided by a given chipset and expanding upon them. The A7V is no exception, and includes a three-port header to compliment the two built in USB ports. Additionally, there is an integrated USB hub supporting two ports should you ever find the need for the full seven supported by the A7V.

Following ASUS tradition, the board layout is very clean and easy to work with. Most of the header connections are located at the bottom of the board where very little cable clutter occurs. There are Wake-on-LAN and Wake-on-Ring connectors for use with modems or NIC's supporting these features. Three fan headers are included for cooling purposes along with the hardware necessary for monitoring their RPM. Finally, while most ASUS boards have poorly-placed ATX power supply connectors, the A7V relocates it to a more heatsink/fan friendly location where the cables will not block any airflow.

Taking their feature-rich philosophy a step further, ASUS has also added a Promise PDC20265 ATA/100 controller chip to compliment the ATA/33/66 capabilities of the VIA VT82C686A South Bridge. Although we have yet to see a noticeable real world difference between DMA/66 and 100, the ability to attach an additional four IDE devices is very convenient for users with CD-RW and multiple hard disk drives. It would also be prudent to note that the A7V lacks the RAID support present on ABIT's high-end board, but since we don't see IDE RAID as an optimal RAID solution, we would have a hard time knocking ASUS for not including the necessary support.

For those of you in FSAA heaven right now with your Voodoo5, please make special note that the ATA/100 connectors are not accessible with any full-length AGP card. The extra girth of the Voodoo5 completely covers the two IDE connectors, meaning you won't be able to make use of the Promise controller chip. We have tested with ATI's Rage Fury MAXX, the GeForce 256 & 2 line, and Matrox's G400 MAX - with all of the above cards passing without a problem (even Hercules' elongated GeForce2 card!).