I have a Trustfire X6 on the way and I was going to use some Trustfire protected 3000 mAh 18650’s I got from fasttech.com
Will these be safe to use? I read it is better to use IMR’s after that Italian dude had an 18650 explode inside his x6. Are protected Trustfires good enough?
If I should go with IMR’s, can you make a recommendation for which ones I should get?
The TF 3000’s are suitable, only if the protection circuits work well. They have a reasonably good capacity (around 2600mAh I believe) and they should handle the current well.
IMR’s are more risky since they don’t have protection circuits and are capable of tens of Amps of discharge.
If you do want better quality cells, look for the Panasonic 2900/3100/3400’s at FT.
But those cells will serve you just fine. 
They may serve you just fine. There is a large chance that the batteries have different capacities which can lead to an explosion. I would suggest some of the UR18650ZT protectededs from Fasttech.
I definitely plan on modding the x6 to a higher current, but I am not sure how high yet. Bearing that in mind, between the protected Sanyos and the protected Panasonics, is there a better battery for my application between the two if price is not a concern? The Sanyos are a heck of a lot cheaper but I honestly don’t mind paying extra for the Panasonics all things being equal (except for mAh of course).
Either the Panasonic or Sanyo’s would be great batteries.
In fact Sanyo is part of Panasonic.
I ended up going for the gold and ordered 6 protected Panasonic 3400 mah cells from fasttech.com
It blows my mind how cheap they sell batteries for.