If you want to treat your database design as an 'implementation detail' that just falls out of getting your object model right, then Entity Framework gives you four choices. Picking the right one, ...

In Entity framework you have a powerful client side query engine that you can take advantage of when you need to query data or perform CRUD operations on the underlying database.

Less cruft, more control, and database version control The .NET Entity Framework has come a long way since its early beginnings as an NHibernate alternative and the successor to LinqToSQL.