This board was only intended for the Optical out. Everything else on it was a bonus. The reason why I chose is only I support Asus and their products. So far im happy with this mobo....OH and I must say the BIOS is great for OC VERY user friendly!!!!
Really great board all around, can't go wrong with Asus quality. Have everything you need for a normal build, and more. The only complain I have is for the I/O shield which is plain silver and feels a bit weak and cheap.
The system is very responsive and a pleasure to use. Build quality is great and visually appealing. Runs all of my components first try with no problems on a well designed layout by ASUS. I wanted to be able to have a board capable of performance without breaking the bank and this board has more then satisfied. I noticed after i bought this board the price was raised and dropped a few time, i seen this board get up to $190. I was able to purchased Asus z97-a from Amazon at $150.