Well, the EADS is very quiet, the FALS is very fast.
The HDMI port is because the board had onboard graphics. You would only be able to use it with the low performance graphics card that was built into the AMD board. Since you're buying a proper graphics card, you just use that instead. All graphics cards come with the required adapter to use an HDMI connection.
The simple solution to this problem is to not use Fry's. Buy from newegg. There are several reasons why that board is not the best choice.
WHat do you want me to explain? The WD10EADS is a quiet hard drive, the WD1001FALS is faster, but noisier.
I don't use digital audio fro my PC because it's less reliable than analog audio, but there shouldn't be any reason why you can't run surround over HDMI to a TV with any modern graphics card.
The best value card for games right now is the HD4770, but they don't seem to sell them in the US at the moment.
