If there's one thing that chaps our hide, it's lousy drivers. But coming in at a close second are the craptastic speakers that manage to infiltrate almost every notebook on the planet, including the so-called desktop replacements. Would it kill OEMs to shove a decent pair of cans into their laptops?

Apparently that's not a chance many are willing to take, so it's up to third-party peripheral makers to fill the void. Enter Choiix, a company you probably never heard of, but hold your horses before you go gallopping off. Choiix isn't some generic brand you'll find in the clearance section of Walmart, it's actually a subsidiary of Cooler Master, which we're willing to bet you have heard of (and if not, then welcome to the world of computers, junior!). Cooler Master's Choiix division focuses on lifestyle products, including the BoomBoom Slim Travel Speaker we're looking at today.

As Choiix describes it, the BoomBoom is a "cleverly designed" external speaker accessory offering "rich sound" in a slim package. Given our experience with laptop speakers, that sounds good to us. But can they deliver? Let's just see, or hear, as the case may be.