I know a lot of ppl swear by the good old style sealed shimano bb's. So which models are considered the best?
you mean square taper?
UN72 or 73
yeh i'm guessing mostly square taper but also octalink too.
I have some UN26s which seem to last ages...
Un26's are the bottom of the sealed BB range that shimano do and they are as good as many others many times their cost 8) though a tad heavy
Un 54 or 72 are good though i'd stick to the 54[LX] there really isnt that much difference from the 72[XT]
If you know the size you need ,get one off ebay,theres always plenty to be had at less than 1/2 price
Old square taper XT BBs were the best. Other square taper BB like LX/Deore lasted long enough not to worry about them as we do now about modern ones.
Any octalink BBs are fine too. Being an octalink user since the very beginning of 2000 I has not found any differences between low- and high-end octalink BBs.