The older T8's i heard are much stronger. the newer ones are lighter but they had a recall because they blew up in a mechanics face or something like that. i think that the 2008rc3's are the best. i heard that the RCV's are good untill they start breaking, then its one peice after another, and it looses reliability.
2005: strong 2006-2007: lighter, still good 2008+: i don't even know... lots of problems
basically, if your looking to buy a 888, get from 2005-2007
I ran some 888 for less then 1 year the 2009 ones they sucked i would have been better of using a rigid fork i have had the 2005 ones and they are awesome but i would go with boxxers they have less problems and they are really well designed to bring out the max i cam in the middle of the races in place using marzzochi then my first time i rode my boxxers i won a mini dh race