I purchased this same kit about two weeks ago and I got mine in a box, not a clamshell. They are still sitting at 1333Mhz since I need to RMA my motherboard. I bought them for $89.99 only to have them drop to $69.99 the next week.
GC on the PCB doesn't mean G.Skill Corporation, that's not even their name. Some G.Skill sticks have GA or GB in that spot.
Interesting info on the "GC"...all my sticks have GC. I did mention that "I assume", as I wasn't sure though.
Price drops, from my local retailer, are covered for 30 days!!! Although usually by giftcard...
didn't read the article thoroughly, but when buying RAM, what one should look for: speed and timing? or just speed is enough?
I mean what should be better: fast speed with relaxed timing or not so fast but tight timings? I guess high speed with tight timing is best, but is it worth the price overhead?
That's kind of a complex question. Higher speed ram can pay off, and overall, can lead to a smoother system. There are four main considerations in my books...capacity, speed, timings, and price. The first three all affect the last, too.
What speed you need, depends on what platform you run. I firmly beleive that everyone should be buying the maximum supported speed for the platform they use, which for IVB, is 1600 MHz.
You can get more performance fro mfaster memory, and the more you load your system, the more you will notice. Whether speed of capacity should be your first priority depends on what you do. My main use of my PC is to play BF3 and other gmaes, and BF3 specifically requires more than 4 GB. Faster bus speeds for memory also make BF3 run "smoother", although it has only a minor affect on framerate overall.
Timings increase as speed goes up, and if timings are too high, the gains from that raw speed boost may be negated.
As to the added cost being worth it, that depends as well. For me personally, no cost needs to be spared when it comes to memory. Back with AM3 and P55 I was running 4x 2 GB sticks, which cost me $525, yet I could have got similar capacity for about $150. As the final source of performance increases for me, that was more than acceptable, but no, it's not REQUIRED that you run high-end top-shelf memory. There ARE measurable gains from faster memory, but whther the cost is worthwhile is up to you. For me, it is.