How is price not a drawback, 750 dollars for ~5-15% gain in latency, minor gains in speed? vs a 100 dollar DDR3-1600 cas 9 kit?
250 MHz over the G.Skill(just an example) kit isn't minor gains.
I see this as no different than any high-end motherboard, like the ASRock Extreme11 I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. That motherboard was $600, and the vlaue for that cost was there, and easily explained by the LSI RAID controller. Here, the added cost is covered by overclocknig headroom, esthetics, and additional functionality, like the Corsair Link connector, which allows the memory to report vital stats via software.
Hopefully I'll get a Link kit for a review soon.
I've seen the price as low as $535, and as high as $885.
That $535, I paid that for 8 GB of CAS 8 Dominator GTs.
That $100 kit isn't going to offer all that this kit does, and it's just that simple. Let me put it this way...for me, this kit allowed me to push my CPU's memory controller, and the motherboard, to the limit. I am pretty sure my CPU was what prevented me from pushing further with relaxed timings.
The only way I can confirm for sure is to get a 2800 MHz kit, and see what happens.