2006 was a great year for ThinkComputers. We published 220 reviews and 16 articles. With all of those products that came in I decided to make a list of my favorite products that I reviewed over the past year. I tried to keep the list to 10, but there were so many great products I had to expand the list to 14. They are in chronological order from the date they were posted.
Corsair Voyager 4GB Flash Drive – The Corsair Voyager drive is simply awesome. It is very rugged and you can do anything to it and it will not break. This was my main drive I took with me everywhere and had all of my important files on. I recently lost it, but Vivian from corsair was nice enough to hook me up with another one.
Antec P150 Quiet Case – Antec really outdid themselves with this case. First of all it is white, which you do not see many cases that color. The design is very sleek and stylish. The insides of the case features sound dampening material, Tri-Cool fans, fan filters, and removable hard drive bays. If you do not want to use the drive bays you can suspend your hard drive in the hard drive suspension system, this will also cut down on sound. I am still using this case today for one of my systems.
iRiver U10 Portable Media Player – This little media player is just amazing. What sets this media player apart from others is its size and control system. It only measures 0.5 x 2.5 x 1.75-inches! You control the player by actually pressing down on the screen. It is not touch-screen but the entire screen is a button. I used the U10 all through summer while exercising and going to the pool!
GeCube Radeon X1600 Pro Video Card – This way my first PCI-Express card. Geeks.com was nice enough to send it out to me when I told them I was building a new system. For being my first PCI-Express card it performed really well and I still use it for testing today!
Antec 2U26ATX400XR-2 Rackmount Case – It was time to add a second server into our server rack for ThinkComputers. We had the system ready, but were unsure of the case. Talking with Antec they were nice enough to send the case out. We all know Antec for quality and this rackmount case shows just that. It was perfect for our server and if you are looking for a great rackmount case then I would definitely check out what Antec has to offer.
Saitek Eclipse II Illuminated Keyboard – This was one of my most anticipated products of 2006. The Eclipse II takes everything the original eclipse had and makes it better. Not to mention you get 3 different colors of illumination, not just one. I am still using this keyboard today and I love it!
Antec Fusion Media Center Case – This is my favorite media center case of 2006. Antec did a great job making the case stylish, but not to flashy. The case is perfect for anyone who has a media center. The included VFD and front ports really sell the system. I am currently using this case as my media center case and have no plans to replace it!
OCZ PC2-6400 Spec Ops Urban Elite Memory – This memory just kicks ass! It performs great and the heatspreaders look awesome. They are painted in urban camo paint and will turn heads at any LAN party. I am still using these sticks in one of my servers.
Corsair HX620 Power Supply – This was Corsair’s big jump into the power supply market and they did a great job. It seemed like they took all the great things about many different power supplies and put them into one. This power supply is still in my system.
Crucial 10th Anniversary PC2-5300 Memory – Crucial celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2006 and to commemorate that they put out a special edition memory kit. The kit is the normal PC2-5300 memory, but they feature special heatspreaders that commemorate their 10th anniversary.
NZXT Adamas Case – This case is probably the best case I received all year. The NZXT Adamas case really gives you all that you can ask for out of a case and adds its own style. And it is very durable, being able to support over 300 pounds! The Adamas is truly something different than the normal case.
Alienware Area-51 m5550 Laptop – We recently started working with Alienware reviewing their notebooks. The m5550 was the first unit we received and we were very pleased with it. It was amazing to see how well games played on a laptop!
Logitech AudioStation – This was the best iPod speaker system I reviewed all year. The touch sensitive controls are really cool and the huge LCD display on the front looks great. I have it sitting in my room now and it sounds great! If you are looking for any iPod speaker system I would check out the AudioStation.
Altec Lansing FX5051 Speaker System – I squeezed this review in right before the end of the year. What great about this system is that you do not need a sound card for full 5.1 surround sound! Everything is done via USB. Also the speakers are very small so they are easy to place. I am using this system in my office right now!
Well those were my favorite products that I got a chance to review over this past year. Hopefully 2007 will bring even better products!