White it is certainly true that Serial ATA hard drives and optical drives are the way of the future, IDE is still far from obsolete. With that in mind, we're pleased to see that MSI have included the hybrid Promise PDC20579 IDE/Serial ATA controller on the K8T Neo2-FIR board.

This gives users a choice of what to use with their system; such as two SATA and two IDE drives in RAID 0,1, or 0+1. The VIA VT8237 also supports two SATA drives, and two IDE channels (four devices), so there is plenty of IDE and SATA expansion space here.

Any experienced computer enthusiast will know that the power MOSFETs generate quite a bit of heat, so it is nice to see the K8T Neo2-FIR tackles this issue with a couple well placed aluminum heatsinks. The MOSFET's are configured for a 3-phase power supply incidently.

Wireless networking has gained a lot of popularity and is now a common occurrence in the home, or office. The K8T Neo2-FIR motherboard comes with a stand alone 802.11G wireless networking card, dipole antenna, and both full size and half-height PCI retention brackts. With the speed increases that 802.11g brings to the table, and its enhanced level of WPA encryption, this is certainly a nice bonus to have bundled in.

MSI have also included software especially for the wireless card that will allow users to configure their PC as an Access Point if they wish, and with the external antenna it should serve that purpose quite well.