Products of "yester-year";
AMD K6-2.
An excellent processor that, imo, was a true gamers processor for its time.
nVidia GeForce1 (SDR & DDR).
The first T&L Capible card.
3DFX Voodoo2.
While the V1 was around first, the V2 was the product that really opened our eyes to gfx.
SoundBlaster 16 ISA.
One of the best, most versitile sound cards ever released.
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Products of "today";
nVidia GeForce4 Ti4200.
Never used one, but from benchmarks, i could tell that it offered very good performance for a cheap price.
ATI Radeon 9700pro.
The next real step in computer gfx rendering since the V1. Offered Amazing performance, and even now, over a year later, competes extremely well with the top cards from each respective company. Awsome product.
AMD Athlon64.
The first 64bit consumer processor. Offers great 32bit performance, and has 64bit compatiblity to boot as well!.
SoundBlaster Live! Series.
While the Audigys might well be better, the Live! was the first soundcard to offer us surround sound, EAX, music upmixing (on pc), and a whole host of other things.