MB - I went out looking for freestanding, but after months of looking I ended up with the separates. Mainly because our kitchen was going to be minimal, no overheads with drawers only and I wanted to keep the look with clean lines IYGWIM..
Thing with the freestanding we have now is that I have to get right under it and clean it out cause it's on legs - just another thing to keep clean.
Lastly, I got my top from Harvey Norman for half price cause it was display stock, there was not one mark on it and still looked brand new. So maybe try asking for the display stock if you wanted something more expensive and don't mind the display one.